Whether you recently entered the world of work, you’re a current student or a university applicant it’s likely you know that competition in the UK has never been so fierce. From getting that lucrative graduate career to securing a university place, life is hard in the rat race. You need to boost your concentration levels with brain food so you can focus to revise or prepare for that nerve-wracking interview.

In 2010 higher education applications increased by more than 106,000 when compared with 2009, bringing the total to nearly 600,000. At the same time the government is to make cuts to the tune of £315 million from university budgets, leading to 6,000 fewer places being available for this autumn than a year ago. The result, academics warn, is a potential 200,000 people finding themselves without a course to study come September.

At the other end of the spectrum higher education leavers are not looking too confident in their prospects. Last April the graduate research company High Flyers reported that only 36 per cent of final year students believed there would be a job waiting for them when they finished their studies. It doesn’t take a First Class Honours to know that you need to be on top form to be in with a chance of success.

It may sound odd, but make sure you’re eating enough essential fats, especially Omega-3. It helps optimise performance of the brain, which is more than 60 per cent fat. Protein and carbohydrates are also vital to maintain and boost good mental fitness.

Although vitamins A, C and E are the one’s to concentrate on for memory preservation, the B complex plays an essential role in your brain’s performance, and your body’s energy levels. Drinking water is vital to stay alert, with a mere 2 per cent drop in hydration leading to a significant fall in your cognitive and physical potential.

The human body is a finely tuned machine, but so is the brain. Maintaining the optimum level of nutrients and minerals is important for all-round health, so look for supplements that help to restore the balance you need to always be at your best. It’s not rocket science.

We received this kind email of thanks from one of our customer, which he said we could share with you.

During a conversation with a friend I mentioned that I wanted to try and find something that could help me gain some extra energy during exercise and he recommended Bio-Strath.

I have been using Bio-Strath for about 2 years now and over that time I have definitely seen an improvement in stamina (combined with the fact that I have been training much longer now!) so I just wanted to say Thank you.

Bernie Almond – Aged 49

Look who we found lurking in the Bio-Strath archives: radio personality Jimmy Young, Barbara Windsor and footballing legend Sir Bobby Charlton.

The importance of having a good diet, eating healthily and the benefits of taking in a well-balanced range of nutrients is hardly news, and yet it’s managed to hit the headlines again thanks to a Food Standards Agency (FSA) report revealing Britain’s unhealthy food habits. From extreme slimming to junk food binging, the results are the same – disappointing.

The report found that teenage girls are amongst one of the worst groups in the UK when it comes to Omega 3 and Iron intake, found in oily fish and red meat or wholegrain cereals respectively. Low intake of such essential nutrients can lead to anaemia, heart problems and complications with the nervous system. Experts have linked the nutritional deficiencies with obsessive food habits such as extreme fad diets, used by many in an attempt to reach ‘size zero’.

In stark contrast their mothers were taking in half the amount of sugary drinks, sweets and chocolate, a fact indicative of statistics that have shown a third of teenage girls to be overweight, with around a fifth being clinically obese. Girls are also consuming more alcohol and cigarettes than their male counterparts. Everything in moderation is a notion many would appear to have forgotten.

As usual there’s a lot of talk about miracle diets. From Gordon Brown adopting the Japanese banana diet to Margaret Thatcher eating eggs. So which work, and which are wishful thinking?

Although the Japanese are famed for living longer, and healthier than Westerners, it’s important to remember that whilst a banana contains more nutrients than the doctor-avoiding apple Mr Brown’s policy of up to nine a day can lead to indigestion and flatulence. On the other hand, hidden in and amongst personal papers written in the run-up to Mrs T’s historic Prime Ministerial victory was a diet plan akin to Atkins involving a mammoth 28 eggs per week, which is some cholesterol intake indeed.

Experts stand by their usual recommendations, which contrary to popular belief include 5 steps to a healthy diet – not 7 – and boil down to variety, and common sense. Don’t eat too much of one thing, and don’t forget to eat what you need, not just what you want.

Whilst various plants and herbs can improve your body’s ability to absorb essential ingredients, there are some rules to abide by whatever your size or gym attendance is like. Ensuring you have the right calorie intake to match how active you are; remembering your 5 portions of fruit and veg per day; having around a third of your food as ‘starchy’- i.e. pasta, rice and bread; cutting down on sugar and reducing your salt levels should set you on the right track.

What have they done? Memories of queues for Tamiflu outside inner city chemists begin to fade, the media gives up on talk of the swine flu pandemic and H5N1 avian influenza is all but condemned to the nation’s medical history. But a new scandal is upon us- so many vaccines, so few patients and now too big a surplus.

The Sun says there are currently some 60 million unused doses of Tamiflu sitting in warehouses up and down the UK. Of the stockpiled antiviral just 4.25 million doses were handed out, with the National Pandemic Flu Service now closed for business. The statistics have caused critics to brand the government’s reaction to the worldwide outbreak ‘the great swine flu swindle’.

One of the major problems with the treatment of influenza is the virus’ ability to mutate. Whilst this is a common occurrence, and often changes are slight, major shifts happen around every 10 years. The result is often an epidemic leading to a global pandemic. The worst flu pandemic in history was the outbreak of Spanish flu in 1918, which claimed the lives of some 20 million people across the planet. Later, in 1957, Asian flu infected 50 per cent of school children in the UK, whereas the notorious though less severe Hong Kong strain- H3N2- is thought to have killed around 1 million worldwide.

One identifiable pattern in the last 100 years of influenza’s history is that pandemics would appear to be getting milder, with a greater chance of recovery in most countries, even amongst groups deemed ‘at risk’- the young, the old and the infirm. This is not to say that the potential threat posed by flu should not be taken seriously, but on average the world has better healthcare and a better understanding of how to stay fighting fit.

A healthy immune system is vital for making it through winter without the stereotypical coughs and sneezes, never mind mutant killer flu strains, so it pays to know how to achieve this. Whilst the Egyptians provided their slaves with a clove of garlic a day in order to keep the doctors away, most people already know of the bulb’s powerful properties. Sage, Hyssop and Liquorice are also good for boosting the immune system, they’re less overpowering on the breath and are commonly found in health supplements and tonics.

Both are fermented in yeast, but other than that you wouldn’t think that beer and Bio-Strath had that much in common. But according to a recent study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, beer, like Bio-Strath is good for you.

According to the study, whose findings were published in The Guardian yesterday, beer made from malted barley and hops contains high levels of silicon, which is good for bones and helps prevent osteoporosis. That got us thinking about which is best – beer or Bio-Strath?

Well, beer may be good for your bones but as Dr Claire Bowring of the National Osteoporosis Society points out:

“While low quantities of alcohol may appear to have bone density benefits, higher intakes have been show to decrease bone strength, with an alcohol intake of more than two units per day actually increasing the risk of breaking a bone.”

Also, if you have too much it can be bad for your head!

On the other hand, Bio-Strath doesn’t give you a headache, it improves your physical and mental performance and can help provide you with a feeling of vitality. It’s also rather good at sustaining haemoglobin levels, helping blood to carry oxygen and iron around your body.

Having said that we’re great believers in the saying “everything in moderation”. So, does anyone fancy a pint?

Did you go to work on Monday? We’re just asking because the first Monday in February has become known as National Sickie Day. Apparently, it’s the peak day of the year for workers to take a day off with faked reasons.

As Peter Mooney, of Employment Law Advisory Services, which conducted the research, said in The Mirror earlier this week: “The traditional phone call was always a way for bosses to decipher whether staff members were bluffing or genuinely ill. Some bosses are blamed for making sickies too easy by accepting emails or texts from “ill” staff rather than insisting on a phone call. So the system will be open to more abuse than ever.”

It is thought that up to 350,000 workers failed to turn up to work on Monday after succumbing to the flu, picking up a tummy bug or suffering from a migraine. More imaginative excuses include one man who said the road outside his house was too busy to cross.

So it’s the day of the year we’re most likely to feel under the weather, lack energy or simply can’t be bothered – we all have days like that. It’s been one of the coldest winters on record, it still goes dark early, which is where a pick-me-up tonic such as Bio-Strath can help.

Bio-Strath Elixir helps provide energy, beat stress and produces an overall feeling of wellbeing. It’s also highly effective in boosting the immune system to help prevent colds and other ailments. So you should be feeling ready to face the world – even if your illness is real!