Celebrities may not seem like real people in a lot of respects but apparently they are - and some of them even have trouble sleeping from time to time. Or so says Gwyneth Paltrow in her latest GOOP mail any road.

Good job then that the hugely knowledgeable and talented Dr Frank Lipman is on hand with some tips for how to nip insomnia in the bud. For some people, says Dr Frank, the causes of sleeplessness can require specific clinical treatment. However, for a great many, following a few simple rules could have dramatically positive effects on our sleeping. I know this for a fact because I’m a case in point. Having been a sometime insomniac for more than 10 years, I read Frank’s book Spent (now called Revive: Stop Feeling Spent and Start Living Again ) and I tried the pre-bed yoga relaxation, eye patch and ’switching-off’ suggestions as well as following his recommendations for sorting out a struggling digestive system (a common cause of sleeplessness apparently) and pretty soon I was feeling the benefit. Not only was I getting to sleep more easily but the sleep I get now feels much more restful.

Anyway, don’t just take my word for it. Check out Dr Frank’s top tips in the latest GOOP letter. Gwynnie’s included some tips for how to make your boudoir super sleep-friendly and all… Nighty night.

She may be a macrobiotic goddess, eating only organic food and using only organic skin care (we’re not sure she’s a SOPHYTO devotee just yet but believe she will be soon!), but even successful actress/earth mother du jour Gwyneth Paltrow gets SPENT - or so she says on her website, GOOP.

Luckily, she’s got Dr. Frank Lipman on speed dial, so she can pop down to his surgery in New York whenever she’s over. Now she’s got his book SPENT, too, and like us she thinks it’s awesome.

Check out the interview she conducted with Frank recently on GOOP… He talks through the essential elements of the book, so it might be a good place to start if you are thinking about investing in a copy… (Plus there’s always www.drfranklipman.com for more info as well.)

Spentmd.com - the website that accompanies Dr. Frank Lipman’s brand new “life bible” - has just gone live. It’s packed with bite-sized chunks of info on what ‘Spent Syndrome’ is, why we get it and what we need to overcome it.

For example, you may be suffering from up to 11 different imbalances in your body - acid/alkali, hormonal, mitochondrial, digestive… each one of them contributing to making you feel unwell. The simple solution to these and other ills is to rid your body of such burdens, but radical dietary changes could leave you feeling even worse. So, Dr. Lipman’s step-by-step approach is designed to help you detox, while ensuring your body still gets all the nutrients and support it needs to function optimally.

If you’re in a particularly bad way the 7-day Detox (and accompanying kit) might be a good way to kick start a year of better health. You can also buy all the supplements Dr. Lipman recommends in Spent - the book version - to aid your recovery. I’ve been taking the Metagenics Glutagenics formula for some time now and it really is the best way to strengthen a weak gut (I’ve also had positive responses from friends on its hangover-curing powers!). These formulas aren’t cheap but buying the kits from spentmd.com does at least guarantee you 20% off the individual RRPs.

My favourite aspect of the site is the exercise demonstrations. As someone in constant pain pretty much all over, I’m always interested in possible (non-medicative) solutions, and there’s a whole section on Release Exercises designed to help achy breaky people like me overcome these limiting pains. Yes, they do hurt… a lot, in my case - especially the ones involving tennis balls! But, no pain no gain and all that. I just spent an hour going through all of them and so far I’ve just become more aware of what a bad way my back is in! But, I figure if I do a few every morning, and then the Restorative Exercises in the evening, I could make considerable improvements. What’s so great is that each stretch is explained with easy-to-follow instructions and photos so you can keep the computer near while you do them and keep checking to make sure you’re on the right track.

Plus, unlike most yoga classes you may come across, these poses and stretches (based on Iyengar yoga) are designed for people of a weaker constitution so they don’t expend too much energy while still doing you good!

The recipe section is another treasure trove of useful info. Having told you what not to keep in your cupboards, Dr. Lipman has called upon his culinary-minded cohorts to whip up some nutritious and delicious menu options - breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, sides… he’s got everything covered. And, we’ve been promised regular recipe updates going forward, too.

So, spentmd.com - check it out. It might just make your day. Don’t believe me? Well maybe the testimonials page, will convince you… Donna Karen, Kevin Bacon, Gwyneth Paltrow… Frank has helped them all, with these same simple solutions.

Although, if you’re are thinking of having a look, be prepared, as you may be scrolling around for a while so probably not something to get into if you’re meant to be on your way out…

One of Gwyneth's GOOP-y concoctions

If you’re like me, or in fact practically everyone I know, the chances are you’ve been overindulging a little in the past couple of weeks (read: eating until your shirt buttons were close to giving up). So, now you’re back at work and full of good intentions about eating healthy and doing more exercise to shift the holiday pounds. Everywhere we go in January, people are chirping “Not for me!”, “No, I won’t thank you…” and lauding their particular methods of detox over anyone who dares to stick with the sweet and/or fatty stuff now that the celebrations are all over for another year.

There are so many products and treatments claiming to “detox” you, almost without you doing much of anything, it seems. Foot pads that suck the toxins out of you, face scrubs that leech them out of your skin… but determining which, if any of them, actually offer any benefit, is far more complex. In fact, it’s a total minefield for consumers, as marketing bods have a field day, littering their product copy with the words ‘detox’ and ‘cleansing’ all over the shop.

In anticipation of the post-Christmas rush to the pharmacy, a group of scientific researchers for charitable trust Sense About Science has reviewed 15 so-called “detox” products, and found that not only does every brand have a different definition of detox, but that, according to the BBC report, “in the majority of cases, producers and retailers were forced to admit that they had simply renamed processes like cleaning or brushing, as detox.”

For instance, a Garnier face wash that claimed to remove toxins, actually removed nothing more than the normal dirt and make up that all face washes are expected to remove.

The researchers also slammed a 5-day detox supplement programme available from Boots chemists. The pack claims that consumers will see added benefit from following a healthy eating regime during the programme. But, according to the biologists working on the study, it is simply the healthy eating and not the supplements that has the potential to offer any health benefits.

So, probably best to avoid the craftily-worded hype from the Big Brands and stick to working out a more natural approach to lightening the load.

Even Gwyneth Paltrow’s got some advice on the subject, offering Detox recipes and Tips on her curiously named website, GOOP. Together with one of her many ’sages’ or ‘gurus’, celebrity raw food activist (and cardiologist) Dr. Alejando Junger, she basically advocates cutting out all dairy, meat (although there is a Chicken Teriyaki recipe in there…?), wheat, alcohol and anything else that’s difficult to digest in favour of soups and smoothies. The idea being that if you take the burden off your liver and other digestive organs by eliminating the obviously toxic foods from your diet, they can recover and get back to performing at tip-top levels, leaving your skin and hair glowing and your energy levels soaring… supposedly.

So far so good… if you are a typically healthy person anyway and your body can cope with lots of raw food. But, for those of who are not quite so robust, juices and crudites are just as unfriendly as fried cheese and pudding. If this is you, check out the works and words of naturopathic physician Dr. Frank Lipman. Not only does Frank give a big thumbs up to using SOPHYTO organic skin care, but he has also spent many years helping people with toxic overload (ie. fatigued, stressed, types with low immunity) get back to health, with simple dietary changes and gentle exercises.

Watch this space for more info on Dr. Lipman’s amazing soon-to-be-released book SPENT coming later this week. We’ve managed to get an advanced copy and can’t wait to tell you more…