Our son is keen to join a boxing club. His father boxed as a boy and doesn't see the harm; he says it will keep him fit. I'm afraid he will damage his brain. How can I persuade him against it?

On the latest evidence, I'm not sure you can use the physical injury argument. A recent review could not confirm that amateur boxing caused brain injury. The sport is much better regulated these days, and the report's authors had to admit it is less harmful than other sports, including rugby and riding. The problem arises when amateurs become professionals - those who take part in three or more professional fights tend to accumulate multiple small brain lesions that may be linked to intellectual deterioration.

I'm pear-shaped, with hips larger than my bust. I want to get pregnant and wonder if I should slim first?

I'm not sure how you lose pounds from your hips, rather than from elsewhere on your body. If you are not particularly overweight but just a bit 'hippy', take comfort from a study by the US National Center for Health Statistics which showed that women with wide hips and relatively narrow waists gave birth to children who later performed better at tests of cognition. Unbelievably, the authors proposed that extra fat on hips contains fatty acids that are crucial for an infant's developing brain - as the pregnancy progresses, the baby makes good use of that fat store. But I'll believe it when I read another study agreeing with them.