"Money spent on maintenance is never wasted," said John Thornhill in the Financial Times. That is the rationale behind the latest trend in preventive medicine: full-body scans.

What's so special about these scans?
Unlike traditional CTs or MRIs of a specific part of the body, full-body scans image you from head to toe in only an hour, producing detailed anatomical analysis of organs, bones, muscles and blood vessels. Celebrities and influencers "are holding them up as a pillar of preventive health", said Time magazine. 

Neko Health, a Swedish start-up backed by Spotify founder Daniel Ek, is offering a "full health MOT" for £300. That "seems expensive for the average person", said The Independent's fitness editor Emilie Lavinia, but "when you break down the cost of everything the Neko scan offers – mole mapping alone is usually fairly costly – it seems much more reasonable".

"The idea we had was very simple," Neko co-founder and chief executive Hjalmar Nilsonne told The Guardian. Given that "70% of healthcare costs are tied to chronic diseases, which are largely preventable or can be greatly delayed by early interventions", Neko decided to "create a new category of medical device that could collect people's medical information very cheaply and conveniently". And "then we could start tracking it across time".

What do doctors think?
"Most medical experts are more wary," said Time. The price of full body scans can be as much as several thousand pounds per appointment, and "while they give a good basic overview of your anatomy, they don't optimise the view of each organ or system", said Adam Taylor, director of Lancaster University's Clinical Anatomy Learning Centre, on The Conversation.

There have also been "accusations that these private health checks actually burden the NHS because people then unnecessarily bother them with some small piece of information that is picked up in a scan", said Deborah Orr in The Times.

So is it worth it?
Neko's scans are "not designed to detect many medical conditions", said the FT's Thornhill, and "in better-resourced public healthcare systems, most of the tests would be "routinely offered".

But "it is always a worthwhile exercise to step out of your daily routine and check in on your body".

A lawsuit against the former employer of a CEO who claimed he couldn't afford to live on a salary of £250,000 is prompting fresh discussion about "money dysmorphia".

A close relative of the term "body dysmorphia", where people look in the mirror and don't see "what's really there", money dysmorphia is a "mind-bending split-screen view of reality", said The New York Times.

Blind spots
Researchers have found that people are much more likely to underestimate their earnings than to overestimate or have a realistic assessment of them. A study from HSBC suggested that most British people typically underestimate their earnings by 30% relative to others.

"More interesting still", said Helen Coffey for The Independent, the highest earners "have the biggest blind spot". Nine out of 10 workers on £100,000 or more do not consider themselves "well off", even though such a salary "immediately puts you in the top 4% of the UK".

'Insidious and obsessive'
Money dysmorphia is a "relatively new concept", said The Times, but many people "recognise the feelings associated with it". Google searches for the term are up 136% in the UK since last year.

Although it's "not a recognised clinical condition", therapists believe that "warped perceptions of money" are "regularly the crux of issues such as anxiety and depression".

Younger people "in particular", said the Financial Times, often have "unfounded worries" over lack of funds, and their "stress" goes beyond "standard concerns" about money and the economy because it's "more distorted, insidious and obsessive".

One factor could be "the level of financial security" that the person "experienced growing up", said Coffey. If their family was "perpetually strapped for cash", they're more likely to have an "innate fear" that all "could be lost in an instant".

How to deal with it
There are ways to tackle money dysmorphia, said The Times: "track your finances objectively; challenge negative money beliefs or emotions; set realistic financial goals and limit your comparisons to others".

Another technique is to use savings pots, said Stylist, because having "separate savings for different purposes" can "help ease financial anxiety".

Showrunners Craig Mazin and original game writer Neil Druckmann created something "thrilling" and "profound" with "The Last of Us", said John Nugent in Empire. Based on the 2013 post-apocalyptic video game of the same name, the hit HBO show was a "masterclass in adaptation". Now, the duo are "tempting fate" with a second instalment, but "against considerable odds", they've pulled it off.

The new season kicks off five years after hardened survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) and teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) made their cross-country trek through a "devastated" America. Joel's plan was to deliver the "seemingly immune" Ellie to a rebel group who believed she could hold the key to a cure for the deadly fungus-based pandemic. Following the "brutal failure" of this mission, the pair are living in the walled city of Jackson, Wyoming, where they've established "some semblance of normality". 

Season two has a "narrower" scope than the first, but it's just as "gutsy" and "thoughtful", said Jack Seale in The Guardian. This latest instalment focuses on Ellie "becoming her own person", which means we're treated to more of Ramsey's "wonderfully punchy" take on a "damaged young soul fighting for autonomy".

Episode two, in which the town is assaulted by a horde of infected creatures, rivals the "most visceral and goriest" battles from "Game of Thrones", said Jack King in GQ. It's not just about "flashy effects and violence" either: the episode has high "emotional stakes", and you care about what happens to the characters. Altogether, it's a "certain Emmy play" that is "sure to go down as a TV all-timer".

It's not the government's job to prepare kids for school
Cristina Odone in The Spectator
The government is backing a new website that "lovingly caters for parents who want to know how to prepare their children for schools", writes Cristina Odone, but "unfortunately, that's only half". Little wonder many children beginning reception "bite or scratch" and "struggle to speak". Once, we learned life's "basic skills" at "our mother's knee", but now, many people with children are "reluctant to raise them". The impact on the youngest generation "should fill us with fear".

Republicans should take back control from Trump
David Gauke in The New Statesman
The "uncertainty" created by Donald Trump's "erratic policy approach" is "destroying business confidence", writes David Gauke. Republicans in the US Congress "can do something about it". They could rebel and end the tariffs, if only they "had the courage to act". I was among the Tory MPs who "intervened to prevent a reckless and potentially disastrous outcome" over Brexit, and we "do not regret it". Congressional Republicans "should follow suit".

A generation of women are still haunted by WeightWatchers
Zing Tsjeng in The i Paper
"So long, WeightWatchers – it's time to step on the scale for the last time," writes Zing Tsjeng, amid reports that the company is preparing for bankruptcy. "I won't miss it" nor the way it "profoundly altered" how women "felt about food". Its "punitive, fat-shaming rhetoric" taught us that eating was "freighted" with "guilt and shame". WeightWatchers may be "facing its last supper", but the "restrictive attitude" that it pioneered is "alive and well".