OCTOBER 2023 HEALTH • MONEY • TRAVEL • FOOD & DRINK • CULTURE • REAL STORIES “REGRETS ARE A WASTE OF ENERGY” John Goodman Beyond Words A Man’s Life Transformed By Three Months Of Silence 100 WORD-STORY Competition Win £1,000!
Contents OCTOBER 2023 OCTOBER 2023 • 1 14 IT’S A MANN’S WORLD Olly Mann explains how fatherhood has changed his attitude towards football ENTERTAINMENT 18 INTERVIEW: JOHN GOODMAN The star of Roseanne, The Big Lebowski and Monsters Inc talks sobriety and schedules 26 “I REMEMBER”: CHRIS HADFIELD With awe-inspiring careers as an astronaut, test and fighter pilot and author, Chris Hadfield looks back on his amazing life HEALTH 34 SNORING STRUGGLES How a man suffering from bad sleep habits and snoring was prepared to try anything to make his situation better 54 TEENAGE CANCER How surviving cancer at a young age has a huge impact and long-term effects that last into adulthood Features INSPIRE 78 100-WORD-STORY Our popular competition to write a story using just 100 words is back 82 THE SOUND OF SILENCE How simply staying quiet and walking over 600 miles profoundly changed a man's life 92 FUNGUS FACTS 13 fascinating things about fungus, from the mushroom market to their potential travel to outer space TRAVEL 96 JAPANESE PRAYER PLAQUES Why varied wooden prayer plaques adorn temples and shrines in Japan 102 LAST STEAM TRAIN SERVICE Travelling to Poland to experience and even help drive the last scheduled steam train in the world cover photograph by Album / Alamy Stock Photo p96
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OCTOBER 2023 • 3 5 Editor's Letter 6 Over to You 10 See the World Differently HEALTH 42 Advice: Susannah Hickling 46 Column: Dr Max Pemberton DATING & RELATIONSHIPS 50 Column: Monica Karpinski INSPIRE 66 My Britain: North Pennines 74 Under the Grandfluence: Baddiewinkle 76 If I Ruled the World: Toyah Willcox TRAVEL & ADVENTURE 112 My Great Escape 114 Hidden Gems: Margate MONEY 116 Column: Andy Webb PETS 122 How to keep your pets safe over Halloween and Bonfire Night HOME & GARDEN 124 How to use adaptable furniture to optimise smaller living space FOOD & DRINK 126 How to use leftover Halloween pumpkin in delicious recipes ENTERTAINMENT 130 October's Cultural Highlights BOOKS 134 October Fiction: Mirriam Sallon’s book selections 139 Books That Changed My Life: Frank Cottrell-Boyce TECHNOLOGY 140 Column: James O’Malley FUN & GAMES 144 Stretching the Truth 146 You Couldn't Make It Up 149 Word Power 152 Brain Games 156 Laugh! 159 Beat the Cartoonist 160 Good News In every issue p76 Contents OCTOBER 2023 p126
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OCTOBER 2023 • 5 EDITOR’S LETTER I f you go around asking people about their all-time favourite John Goodman film, you’re in for a mishmash of answers. He’s the embodiment of versatility, capable of effortlessly taking centre stage in virtually any movie, outshining his co-stars. For some, he resonates as the affable family man, Dan Conner, in Roseanne. Others can readily quote his iconic lines from The Big Lebowski, while younger viewers might idolise him for lending his voice to the amiable blue monster, Sulley, in Monsters, Inc. As for me, I’m all about his role as the larger-than-life drug dealer Harling Mays in 2012’s Flight. The scene where he rolls up to a hotel to save Denzel Washington’s pilot from the mother of all hangovers, strutting down the hallway with a backpack full of cocaine to the tune of The Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil”—that’s got to be one of the coolest moments in movie history. We are thrilled to share our interview with Goodman on p18, where he delves into reigniting his passion for acting, overcoming his alcohol addiction in 2007, and simply embracing life’s everyday experiences: from dentist appointments to leisurely days in his New Orleans home, and his newfound fascination with the works of Charles Dickens. As grounded and unpretentious as he is remarkably skilled, spending 15 minutes inside the mind of this Hollywood hero is truly a delight. You can also sign up to our newsletter atreadersdigest.co.uk Reader’sDigestis published in 23 editions in 10 languages facebook.com/readersdigestuk twitter.com/readersdigestuk @readersdigest_uk Follow Us Eva eva mackevic Editor-in-Chief Unfiltered GOODMAN
Over To You LETTERS ON THE August ISSUE We pay £30 for every published letter Memories Of Moggy I loved reading about Rebecca Treston's Morris Minor 1000, as a “Moggy” was my very first car. Built in 1959 and purchased from one of my uncles some 12 years later for the princely sum of £100, it took me everywhere. Moggy was often crammed with friends too. Health and Safety couldn't have been a major concern then, because I remember it once taking nine of us—six in the back and three in the front—a short distance to a party. For several summers, I taught English to foreign students at a language school on the Kent coast. At a speed never exceeding 50mph, Moggy used to take the greater part of a day to travel down from Yorkshire, using mainly A-roads and making regular stops at transport cafes. As my job involved socialising with our mainly adult students as well as teaching them, the evenings often saw 6 • OCTOBER 2023 Send letters to [email protected] Include your full name, address, email and daytime phone number. We may edit letters and use them in all print and electronic media WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! us take an international group to a fun fair, disco or country pub. My humble Moggy once even transported a young prince from one of the oil-rich states in the Middle East (we went to Dreamland in Margate, where His Highness consumed far more candy floss than was good for him and I feared for my upholstery). Parting company with my Moggy was a very sad day, but I didn't have the resources to pay for all the work needed to keep her on the road. It would be good to think, though, that someone else may have lovingly restored her, as so many proud Morris Minor owners have done to her contemporaries. MAGGIE COBBETT, North Yorkshire
OCTOBER 2023 • 7 Walk This Way, Talk This Way I read with interest “If I Ruled the World” with Christopher Somerville. I recently purchased his book, Walking the Bones of Britain, as I am an avid walker myself. I note that if he ruled the world, he would make geologists explain themselves to everyone. I'm behind him all the way on this. To think like a geologist is complicated. There is definitely a particular way of thinking unique to them. I feel it's something you're either born with or not— training just finishes what they started. I googled geology—it describes the structure of the Earth on, and beneath, its surface and the processes that have shaped that structure. I have a friend who studied Geology at university and he did a five-year course in the end. He is now an environmental consultant. I have to say, he is without a doubt one of the coolest people I know, even though I have a tough task on my hands (when he starts talking about his job) understanding what he means! RYAN ROSWELL, Norfolk Stylish Second-Hand "What's The Point Of New Clothes?" was a thought-provoking article. I totally got where the writer Richard Glover was coming from. There are so many reasons why buying second-hand clothes is better for you and the planet. It helps keep items in circulation, saves you money, you can discover unique items that you will love, you are supporting good causes, and finding second-hand clothes is more fun! It is also better for the environment than buying new, it's easier than ever to buy second-hand (with so many charity shops and online charity shops) and it can help you develop your own style…just to list a few reasons. Awareness of the environmental and social downfalls of the fashion industry has grown significantly in recent years. I not only buy clothes and shoes second-hand, I buy used furniture and kitchen essentials too. Throwaway fashion is putting pressure on our planet and its people. It’s unsustainable. I hope this article helps to make people think again about buying secondhand items. POPPY AITCHISON, Manchester
O V E R T O Y O U 8 • OCTOBER 2023 Autumnishere by Les Powell, Kent Autumn is here… The colours are pastel shades, The breeze is not so friendly now, And I have watched the flowers fade. An edge to the air bids “Farewell summer”, The early nights are cool, The grass has slowed to an easy speed, And I have stored the garden tools. The berries attend the birds, I have replanted the bulbs for the spring, Although spring seems so far away, Time is swift, on silent wings. The green leaves have donned, A rusted beauty of their own, They announce the coming of winter, And the warmth of a cosy home. The earth is to have its slumber, With autumn as its cloak, We will soon hear the crackle of bonfires, And know again, the scent of their drifting smoke. “Yes…autumn is here”. POETRY CORNER Whether you’re a seasoned poet or just getting started, we’d love to see your work! Email us at readersletters@ readersdigest.co.uk. Include your full name, address and the title of the poem. We’ll pay £30 for every published piece Want to see your short poem published in Reader’s Digest? GuideDogPuppy byBrendaWatkins, Surrey Pedro gentle, soft as blossom, Palest coat we’d ever seen Came to us in early summer To begin his new routine. Six weeks old they brought him to us— Life for him had just begun Heavy lidded, doe-eyed, sloe-eyed Slumbering in April sun. Didn’t know that he was special— Destined to become a Guide, Dreaming deeply—paws a’twitching With his football by his side.
OCTOBER 2023 • 9 A Letter From A Boy, From 1993 I was nine when the war started in Bosnia. Just a couple of months before that, my brother passed away from cancer. My mother gave her all not to feed my introvert nature, would even lock the door of the house and made me go out and find other kids to play with. When the shelling of our country began, going outside was life threatening. With nowhere to play, my mother took me to an English language class. At first there were about 20 of us. After a couple of months of shelling, I was the only one to attend the class. The old English teacher gave every atom of her energy to pass on all the knowledge she could to make me learn and use the time with her as effectively as possible. I will never forget her words: "When you find yourself waking up and thinking in the other language, only then you will know you're on a good path to learning it”. The classes finished, it was still wartime, and I was hungrier for the English language—more than ever. My family's next door neighbour used to work as an English interpreter, and he started Tocelebrate the richlegacyofReader’sDigest,we share someof yourmost cherishedmemoriesofthemagazine.Kickingoffthis newseries is amoving letterfromourreaderinBosnia and Herzegovina,whofoundsolace inlearningEnglishwiththehelpof Reader'sDigest as a childinawar-torncountry... Memory Lane giving me two kinds of materials: Agatha Christie's novels and Reader's Digest! But there was a catch. If I wanted more material from him, I had to persuade him I had read the last magazine from cover to cover! I had to summarise everything! While other kids were gathering around the lucky ones who had Commodore64s, I was sweating over understanding everything you wrote. Fast forward to today, I am now 41. Family with two kids. Entrepreneur. Wrestling with all aspects of surviving in a constantly changing industry and world. I noticed I was getting anxious. Entrepreneurship is a hell of a ride and it gets to you one way or another. I have been searching for ways to slow down for the last six months…and then I stumbled upon Reader's Digest UK, June 2023. I don't think even ChatGPT is eloquent enough to describe the feeling of turning the pages 30 years later. My dear Reader's Digestteam, I'm thankful for each and every word you have printed. You helped a ten-year-old boy then, and you're helping a grown man now. Azur Hrusti, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T Email your Reader's Digest memories to [email protected]
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SEE THE WORLD... turn the page 11
From a bird‘s eye view orin the light of sunset, marshalling yards display a beauty all of their own. When they are in operation, they tend to be noisy and dangerous places for unauthorised persons, as they are used to assemble wagonsweighing tons into trains. The marshalling yard in Maschen near Hamburg (pictured here) is the largest in Europe. Up to 4,000 cars are moved here every day. …DIFFERENTLY 12
14 Never a fan of football, or any sports for that matter, Olly Mann explains how the combination of fatherhood and Boreham Wood FC have changed his attitude towards supporting a team
illustration by jemastock/iStock OCTOBER 2023 • 15 I have a favourite footballer. His name is Chris Bush and he’s a defender for the National League team Boreham Wood in Hertfordshire. He’s 31, and he plays in the number 5 shirt, and…well, I can’t tell you that much more about him, really, because, in general, I struggle to focus when it comes to football. My crippling disinterest in "The Beautiful Game" has been lifelong. At primary school, my classmates spent lunchbreak playing keepie-uppie and trading Tottenham Top Trumps, while I was in the library getting kicks from books and computers. In Games lessons, like all fat kids, I was put "in defence"—which involved chatting to my mates and occasionally pretending to be bothered about where the ball was. I became expert in imitating the body language of the boys who cared: cheering when a goal was scored; channelling their indignation when there was a near-miss; approximating their Olly Mann is a presenter for Radio 4, and the podcasts The Modern Mann, The Week Unwrapped and Today in History with the Retrospectors Beautiful Game The
joy at a free kick, although I didn’t understand the rules. As I got older, I stopped trying to fake it. Instead, I wore my aversion to football as a badge of honour; a fundamental part of my identity. “It’s only a game!" I’d tell Dad, as he urged me to watch England flunk yet another penalty shoot-out. I’d separate the Sports section from The Times and chuck it straight into the bin, as if it contaminated the rest of the paper. When a big game was on, I’d go shopping, and post performative photos of me doing so on social media, smugly demonstrating how much more free time I had than the mindless majority around me, endlessly absorbed in their silly competition that pointlessly resets itself every 12 months. And, genuinely, I credited some intellectual advantage to the space in my brain I’d cultivated for non-sports trivia. But, occasionally—typically, in the backseat of a cab, or when meeting a friend’s father—I’d find myself confronted with a well-intentioned opener like, “Cor, terrible season we’re having, eh?”, or simply, “Who do you support?”, and feel my heart sink, knowing my reply would inevitably disappoint. Sometimes, such fellows would field me a friendly follow-up: “Oh, right, are you a rugby man, then? Cricket?”— an equally unhelpful line of enquiry, given my total indifference to any sport aside from the Olympics (and there’s only one fortnight every four years when anyone wants to chat about the Olympics). This attitude of mine, I could see, had closed off hours of conversation, evenings out, even entire friendships with people (well, men, mainly) that I might otherwise have enjoyed. I couldn’t change the fact that I found football boring, but was coming to regret my outsider status as much as I celebrated it. And then I became a dad, and I didn’t want my two boys to lack this desirable social lubricant. So, I brought a football to the playground. I got them a mini foosball table. And, because I couldn’t bear to sit through Match of the Day, I bought them tickets to watch our local team, Boreham Wood. The atmosphere at Meadow Park stadium immediately disarmed me: I’d been expecting a compact replica of the confrontational, macho, wallet-draining experience of larger clubs, but this felt friendly, low-key, inclusive—and good value (free 16 • OCTOBER 2023 I T ’ S A M A N N ’ S W O R L D THE ATMOSPHERE AT MEADOW PARK STADIUM FELT FRIENDLY, INCLUSIVE AND GOOD VALUE
parking on the street, £2.50 for a bag of chips). We sat close to the action (mind you, all seats at Meadow Park are close to the action—it’s like fringe theatre), surrounded by families who clearly had a real connection to the players on the pitch: some because they were life-long supporters, others because they were literally related to them. And, because my kids kept asking me what was going on, I stayed relatively alert to the game (I’ll admit, I occasionally found myself drifting and studying the advertising hoardings, but perhaps for only ten per cent of the match). Almost without noticing, my yelps of support when "The Wood" scored a goal were actually authentic, as were my groans when "we" missed a penalty kick. Still, some things felt alien to me: the ripple of wolfwhistles when a female referee stepped up; some boys banging out the England chant on a drum (what’s the point when the other team are English too?). My younger son, Toby, unfortunately wriggled and kicked through most of the game (perhaps footballphobia is genetic…?), but the older one, Harvey, was enthralled, and we’ve since returned to Meadow Park five times—in sunlight, in rain, under floodlights, in the cold—each time following the action more closely, and feeling a stronger connection with the team's supporter community. That’s how Chris Bush comes into the story. Minutes after The Wood’s win against Halifax in August (2-0, about as good as it gets), we were heading out of the stadium—Harvey bedecked in his Boreham Wood FC scarf and hat—when we strolled past Chris, cooling down by the goalposts. Not only did he high-five Harvey, he posed for a photo, too, grinning with delight. Not something you’d get in the Premier League, I suspect. And, finally, giving me a genuine answer to “Who do you support”?. Q OCTOBER 2023 • 17 R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T Octoberis Breast Cancer Awareness Month so help raise money to support breast cancer prevention, as sadly everyone knows someone affected Breast Cancer Now's "WearIt Pink" day is one of the biggest fundraising events in the UK, helping with bake sales, wild swims, knitting sesssions and more SOURCE: BREASTCANCERNOW.ORG Wear It Pink
ENTERTAINMENT 18
F orty years into his career and having conquered his demons, John Goodman is feeling energised. “I’ve surpassed all my dreams,” he says with one of those trademark huge grins of his, “and the best part of it is within the last few years I’ve fallen in love with acting again.” With his heavy drinking days now far behind him, this most amiable and unguarded of interviewees admits: “I got jaded and dulled a little bit. I always liked doing it but now I really, really love it.” Professionally the man best known for playing Dan Conner on Roseanne and for his darkly comic turns in many Coen Brothers films is in a very good place. Now 71, he’s got regular gigs on the Roseanne reboot (renamed The Conners after Roseanne herself got into hot water for an ill-advised Twitter rant) and the crime comedy The Righteous Gemstones, plus he voices cuddly Sulley on the Monsters at Work series on Disney+. Goodman hasn’t been on stage for a while, not since he trod the West End boards in 2015 in American Buffalo and appeared on Broadway in The Front Page A the following year. “But when I get the time, I’d like to LBUM / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO TheUSscreenlegendopensupabout stardom, sobrietyandgrowingupwithoutafather John Goodman By Simon Button “RegretsAreA Waste Of Energy” OCTOBER 2023 • 19
DONALD COOPER / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO 20 • OCTOBER 2023 start a theatre career again. It’s very rewarding. The best experience I ever had was when I did American Buffalo in London.” As for whether he’s now got this acting thing down pat, what with everything from movies like The Flintstones to Argo and such TV shows as Sesame Street to The West Wing on his packed CV, he grins again. “Absolutely not. But I’m learning how to relax more into it and to realise that it’s not life or death. It just makes it easier if I’m more relaxed and more susceptible to inspiration.” He has regrets, both personally and professionally, but he chooses neither to detail or dwell on them. “I have many regrets but it’s worthless to think that way. I used to live on regrets as motivation but they’re stupid and a waste of energy.” We’re chatting at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Television Festival, where Goodman is serving as jury president. He’s been meeting fans, all of whom have one thing in common. “They seem to like the guy from The Big Lebowski the most,” he says of his turn as Jeff Bridges’ bowling buddy in the Coens classic. “I’m not going to argue with them. I’m very happy that it makes people so happy. They watch it over and over and they know the lines better than I do.” I N T E R V I E W : J O H N G O O D M A N
OCTOBER 2023 • 21 Looking smart but relaxed in a navy jacket, yellow tie and khaki trousers, he’s a shadow of his former self. After quitting alcohol and taking up diet and exercise, he’s shed 200 pounds and is much healthier for it. “But I’ve been working non-stop for the last six years and I’ve had to neglect little medical things that pile up,” he sighs about the unavoidable ravages of time. “This summer I’ve been bouncing from doctor to dentist to doctor, trying to repair things that have needed repair for a while.” Goodman’s drinking days actually amounted to 30 years, during which he’s confessed to often being so drunk at work he’s amazed he never got fired. It must have taken incredible strength to give up alcohol for good in 2007? Xxxxx (Clockwise from left) Goodman in American Buffalo, The Flintstones, Argo, The Big Lebowski R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T MAXIMUM FI LM / MARY EVANS PICTURE L IBRARY LTD / AJ PICS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
COL LECTION CHRISTOPHEL / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO He nods his head. “It was a matter of surrendering [to sobriety]. I was sober for a couple of weeks and after that I knew that I would never go back. It frightens me and I know I can only speak for one day at a time but I know I’m not going to drink today. And I gained so much by giving it up. I regained my life.” John Stephen Goodman was born and raised in small-town Missouri. His father died of a heart attack when John was two years old. “So I grew up without a father and there was always a feeling of being different. I was a loner and I used to escape by watching TV, at least when our television set wasn’t broken.” He smiles at the memory. “You had to keep banging it to get it to work.” He played football in high school and earned a football scholarship to Missouri State University, but a ligament injury soon put paid to a sports career. So he switched to the drama programme and, with his sights on the stage, set off for New York in 1975. “I didn’t think there was any possible way that I’d succeed but I knew that if I didn’t give it a go I would hate myself for the rest of my life. I didn’t expect to stay long but I knew I had to try.” John exceeded his low expectations, performing off-Broadway and in dinner theatre productions before graduating to Broadway itself and 22 • OCTOBER 2023 I N T E R V I E W : J O H N G O O D M A N InRaisingArizona
MAXIMUM FI LM / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO breaking into movies in the longforgotten 1983 thriller Eddie Macon’s Run, where he was 19th on the cast list. Other films with bigger roles followed, including his first for the Coens with Raising Arizona, before he landed the life-changing role of Dan Conner on Roseanne. He was torn about auditioning for it, saying now: “I had started building a nice film career by then but I said to myself, ‘Well, if I get this I can stop living out of a suitcase for a while.’ I didn’t know how long it was going to last but we all got on like gangbusters. It was just a great place to work.” The show debuted in 1988 and ended up lasting for ten seasons, followed by a reboot in 2018 that saw the Roseanne character being killed off after Barr’s Twitter outburst and the show being renamed. I wonder if Goodman wants to comment on that and he deadpans: “I better not.” Plans to head from Monte-Carlo to Los Angeles to shoot the sixth season of The Conners have since been put on hold because of the Screen Actors Guild strike, as has a return to South Carolina for season four of The Righteous Gemstones. Married to Annabeth Hartzog (with whom he OCTOBER 2023 • 23 “I WAS SOBER FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS AND AFTER THAT I KNEW I WOULD NEVER GO BACK” Roseanne,1988
PICTURELUX / THE HOL LYWOOD ARCHIVE / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO 24 • OCTOBER 2023 “IWASABIGKID ANDICOULDLOOK SCARY—WHENIDO MYRELAXEDFACE, IT LOOKS LIKE I’M ANGRY” has a daughter, Molly) since 1989, he says of Charleston, NC: “It’s a great city. My wife loves it. The dogs love it. And the crew and the other actors are just a wonderful company.” Hopefully there’ll be more Coens films too. “I love working with them,” says the man who last collaborated with the brothers on 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis. “When I auditioned for Raising Arizona I didn’t know anything about them. Like me, they were just a couple of Midwestern wise guys who lived in New York and they turned out to be geniuses. It’s so easy for me to play the characters they come up with because it’s all there on the page. I don’t have to do a lick of work.” Playing Sulley in the Monsters, Inc. franchise is rewarding, but harder work than you might imagine. He’s only doing the voice. “But I still have to throw my whole body into it, so it’s tiring.” He laughs. “And they’re never satisfied. You just have to keep doing things over and over, and after a while you kind of lose your mind but I always enjoyed radio when I was a kid and I’ve always liked to use my voice.” I N T E R V I E W : J O H N G O O D M A N TheRighteous Gemstones
ENTERTAINMENT PICTURES / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO Goodman also channels some of his younger self into the big blue beast. “I was a pretty big kid and I could look scary, and when I do my relaxed face it looks like I’m angry.” He demonstrates, then serves up another grin. Given his usually packed work schedule, what does he do to relax? “You know, I’d never read any Charles Dickens before so I picked up Bleak House and now I’m finishing Little Dorrit. He’s such an incredible writer, but I’ve got to leave them alone for a while because I turn the pages too fast.” As for what else he enjoys during his downtime, he adds: “I like being with my wife at home in New Orleans doing nothing in particular, just not having to answer any phones or doorbells. That doesn’t happen much but I relish it when it does.” Workwise he’s happy to consider whatever comes his way. “I’m really not that ambitious and other people have better imaginations than I do, so I rely on them to come up with the characters for me.” And what does he prefer: playing nice guys or bad ones? “I honestly don’t care,” Goodman deadpans. “I’m just happy when anybody wants me for anything.” Q Monsters at Work is streaming on Disney+. The Righteous Gemstones is on Sky Comedy OCTOBER 2023 • 25 R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T Workingon Monsters,Inc. withBillyCrystal
26 ChrisHadfield I R E M E M B E R … Chris Hadfield, 64, is a Canadian astronaut who’s a veteran of three spaceflights and served as Commander of the International Space Station. He’s also been a combat fighter pilot and a test pilot, played a version of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in space and is an author who has written books like An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, The Apollo Murders and his new second novel, The Defector ENTERTAINMENT
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28 I R E M E M B E R : C H R I S H A D F I E L D © CHRIS HADFIELD AS A NINE-YEAR-OLD BOY I WAS GROWING UP ON A FARM AND DREAMING OF GOING TO SPACE. I watched shuttle launches, as well as Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I imagined going to space when I looked up at all the stars in the night sky. I wish I could tell that child that his dreams would come true and that he would grow up to pilot and command spaceships. I FLEW F-18 COMBAT FIGHTERS IN THE COLD WAR AND I WAS A TEST PILOT with the US Air Force and US Navy, even though I’m Canadian. I’ve flown about 100 different types of aeroplanes, including many jet fighters and a few propeller fighters. I’ve flown a Spitfire, F-86 Sabre, F-18, F-16 and F-4—many different, highperformance aeroplanes. In my new novel The Defector, the opening scene is an F-4 in combat. Being able to draw on my experience, as an F-18 pilot and then as a test pilot, really gave me a depth and platform to talk about it knowledgably and from the inside. Hopefully, I can really let people know what it feels like when you’re in combat or when you’re manoeuvring a plane that’s right at the edge. I RAN A PROGRAMME THAT MADE F-18S A SAFER AND MORE CAPABLE AEROPLANE. When I was a test pilot with the US Navy, out in the fleet they were crashing the twoseat F-18s on a regular basis. They would go out of control and the only thing that would save them was the ejection seat. It was very high risk of loss of life, as well as obviously the expense of losing an air frame. The programme that me and some engineers pitched boiled down to me (Clockwise from top left) ChrisHadfield as a five-year-old boy; a teenagerin 1975; an astronautin 2011; an F-18 pilot 28 • OCTOBER 2023
R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T © CHRIS HADFIELD, ROBERTY MARKOWITZ FOR NASA in the airplane deliberately putting it out of control. I was pretty sure that we were high enough and I would get it under control again and we did it and gained confidence the more we did it. We put a new sensor on the nose of the F-18s and used that information to change the flight control laws. We saved lots of aeroplanes and, I expect, some lives. It was a great programme, but it was quite a challenge to run it safely. WHEN YOU FIRST ARRIVE IN SPACE YOU’VE RIDDEN EIGHT AND A HALF MINUTES ON AN EXTREMELY WILD, POWERFUL RIDE ON A ROCKET SHIP. However, it’s short enough that it’s more like driving a car at maximum performance on a very rough road. As
NASA IMAGE COLLECTION / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO I R E M E M B E R : C H R I S H A D F I E L D soon as you get to weightlessness your body is now in a fundamentally different environment, for up to (in my case) five or six months, with no gravity and high radiation. The immediate natural reaction to weightlessness is nausea and exhaustion. Obviously, if you have a problem with your spaceship you don’t want to be throwing up and tired, so we take anti-motion sickness medicine. After a couple of days your body adapts to it. A LACK OF GRAVITY CAUSES SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO YOUR BODY. Your body gets slightly longer, because your back isn’t being compressed by gravity and is instead being stretched, giving you back pain. 30 There’s no gravity to push the blood out of your head, so your face gets fatter and kind of red. The intracranial pressure increases as well and your eyeballs deform slightly (changing a lot of people’s prescription). Your sinuses clog up because there’s nothing to drain your sinuses. I tell people, “If you want to feel what it’s like, stand on your head for three or four hours”. You lose your skeleton. We have bad osteoporosis because the human body doesn’t need a heavy skeleton if you’re not fighting gravity. All these things take about a month to stabilise in orbit and obviously when you come back, all those things have to reverse. The one that takes the longest is getting your bone ChrisHadfield on board the International Space Station on Saint Patrick'sDay
R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T © IAN CHADDOCK , density back. I lost about eight per cent of my bone density, especially in the weight-bearing part of my body— the hips and the femur. It took about a year and a half to get back to prelaunch density. But I’d go do it again in a heartbeat. If it’s travelling in space and exploring the universe, it’s fine—it’s just part of the deal. IT'S BEYOND BEAUTIFUL TO SEE THE WORLD THE WAY I’VE SEEN IT. I’ve been around it 2,650 times, so I’ve seen more than my share of sunrises and sunsets. I’ve seen just such magnificence. To be able to glance the entire length of the Himalayas. To be able to look all the way from Stockholm to Gibraltar, in a glance. To see the fires of Australia, when things are burning. To see 2,000 miles of thunderstorms across Indonesia and Malaysia, when the entire cloud tops are contagious with lightning. It’s extremely mindexpanding, to get the true reality of our world. PERHAPS THE MOST IMPACTFUL IS TO SEE SOMETHING RARE. One dawn, before the sun had risen across the Indian Ocean, I was in the cupola with my camera looking down at the world and trying to steal every moment I could. There was an unearthly glow above the atmosphere, almost like shimmering grey-blue waves. I took all the pictures I could. It’s a very rare and hard-to-see cloud that glows in the OCTOBER 2023 • 31 Playing Bowie's "SpaceOddity" at a London live eventin June 2023
I R E M E M B E R : C H R I S H A D F I E L D © CHRIS HADFIELD Piloting an F-86 Sabre night called noctilucent clouds. It was just the right angle between the sun behind the horizon and the right rare collection of ice crystals, high in the atmosphere above the stratosphere. It was almost like a surreal rainbow. Because of our speed at five miles a second, we were skimming across it. I felt like the world had just shown me a secret. MY ZERO GRAVITY COVER OF “SPACE ODDITY” GAVE DAVID BOWIE GREAT JOY. On my first time in space I was on the cover of Time magazine, so it wasn’t the first brush with fame I’d had. I’ve been a musician my whole life and played in bands. But it’s audacious to cover a terrific musician’s song and I sort of got talked into it by my son. But there was something very prescient in the way Bowie wrote “Space Oddity”—it seemed right on board a spaceship. With just imagining it he somehow captured what the actual feeling is like. The version of the song is something I’m very proud of. Two years before the end of his life, when he probably privately knew that something was coming, he got to see the song played in a place that he always wanted to go. Hundreds of millions of people have seen my version of “Oddity”, which is fine, but I’m just so happy that it put a smile on Bowie’s face. LOOKING DOWN AT THE EARTH ONE NIGHT, I SAW A BIG 32 • OCTOBER 2023
R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T Autumn Leaves "But I miss you most of all, my darling, when autumn leaves start to fall" FRANK SINATRA, "AUTUMN LEAVES" SHOOTING STAR, with a long, trailing flame. That’s just a big, random rock from the universe that has been trapped by the Earth’s gravity and because of its speed is developing friction and burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere. You can’t help but think, That rock just went by us. It did send a shiver up my back thinking it could have just as easily come through our spaceship. It was big enough to punch a significant hole in our ship and probably would have killed all of us. That happens on Earth too, with random events you can’t do much about them—you can either let them drive you crazy or not. We practise depressurising procedures and I know what the armour is on the outside of the ship and how to repair holes in the ship. But if a random event is large enough, you’re dead. It was dangerous, risk-filled, incredibly beautiful and fulfilling. Being ready and prepared, to me, is the best way to go through life. WHEN I WROTE THE APOLLO MURDERS AND MY SECOND NOVEL, THE DEFECTOR, I BASED THEM ON MY OWN EXPERIENCES. I've flown in space three times it gave me a terrific perspective and depth to be able to write The Apollo Murders and then The Defector is about a defection of a top-end Soviet fighter in 1973. The story starts on September 5, 1973, which is the eve of the Yom Kippur War in Israel. The story is about 90 per cent real. My plot is interwoven with things that were actually happening and over half of my characters are real people—Golda Meir, Nixon, Kissinger. To me, that makes it more interesting. I want it to be so real that you can’t actually tell which parts are real and which parts are just the story. Q As told to Ian Chaddock The Defector by ChrisHadfield is published byQuercus and is out October 10, priced £20 OCTOBER 2023 • 33
HEALTH OCTOBER 2023 • 35 BY Jordan Foisy FROM THE WALRUS I wanted a quick fix, even if it meant strapping a glorified bike pump to my face HowI Tried To illustrations by Hayden Maynard
My girlfriend, Allison, however, does not think I’m a good sleeper. She knows the truth. At night, I thrash around and scream. Occasionally, it sounds like my breathing stops. Worst of all for her, I snore. Badly. She’s shown me a video of it, and it’s horrifying: my thin, wheezing inhalations are interrupted by a wrenching tear of a noise, like someone ripping a carpet inside a cave. We sometimes get into little fights when I wake up. She’s had a terrible sleep and is justifiably annoyed. She can’t stay mad for long, though, because who is she mad at? Certainly, it was my body, not me, that was snoring; my lungs moving the air, my soft tissues. Those are the guilty parties. When Allison is flipping my sleeping body over and plugging its nose, or occasionally smothering my face with a pillow, who is she smothering? How unimportant is the self to our life when we are sleeping—something we spend a third of our life doing— that it can be completely absent? i tried treatingmy snoring with the junk-drawer solution of buying every anti-snoring device I could: nose strips, mouth guards, nasal spray—anything that promised snoring absolution. Nothing worked. Every time, there would be a glimmer of hope, when we would try to convince ourselves my snoring wasn’t as bad. But, every time, it soon became clear that the only difference was the top of my mouth was now shredded from the cheap plastic of a so-called snore guard. Allison wanted me to see a doctor, but it’s hard to take snoring seriously think of myself as a good sleeper. Give me a large book and a horizontal position, and I could fall asleep strapped to the top of a bullet train. Sleep has been a constant ally, a friend. When I was a teen, it was a refuge. I used to pray forsleep. Its temporary oblivion was a welcome respite from anxiety and obsessive thoughts. It was a pause—not a death, but close enough to it. Every time I fell asleep, there was a chance of resurrection, to wake up new. 36 • OCTOBER 2023 H O W I T R I E D T O S T O P S N O R I N G
as a health problem. It seems more like a joke, like a problem that a sitcom dad would have after getting electrocuted by Christmas decorations. It seems less like a health issue and more like a personality defect. According to Nick van den Berg, a PhD candidate in experimental psychology at the University of Ottawa and a member of the Canadian Sleep Society, “Snoring occurs as our muscles in the upper airway relax so much that they narrow the airway.” This is why snoring gets worse as we age, as our once taut and virile inner neck muscles become flabby and weak. The real threat of bad snoring is that it could be a sign of obstructive sleep apnoea, when a blockage in your airway causes you to wake up constantly. The lack of sleep—for you or your partner—can be a serious health risk, as insufficient sleep has been linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s. More than all of that, sleep is essential to your functioning as a human being. “Sleep is key to memory consolidation,” says van den Berg. When we sleep, our brain organises, processes and saves our memories. Not only that, he says, but sleep also enhances our memories. Van den Berg told me about studies in which the subjects are taught a basic skill before bed. When they wake up, they not only remember the skill but have actually improved upon it. Sleep, then, is where we are forged. Every night, we throw our day-to-day experiences, memories and lessons into the kiln of sleep, let them bake for hopefully eight hours, and emerge a better, stronger, fuller version of ourselves in the morning. so my girlfriend was right to insist I deal with the problem, but I was resistant. I’m in my mid-thirties and haven’t had a doctor since I was a kid. My healthcare subsisted on walk-in clinic visits and youthful hubris—a faith that things will work out and a belief that a problem doesn’t really exist until you deal with it. But what really scared me off was that going to a doctor about my snoring would force me to confront how I live and its repercussions, and that my body has limits. It has been a tough year. A friend passed away suddenly and tragically. Then my grandmother followed. My chronic knee problem turned into a full-blown meniscus tear, dashing any hopes of a late-life bloom into a guy who is “surprisingly athletic.” My eyesight became distorted, and MY HEALTHCARE SUBSISTED ON FAITH THAT A PROBLEM DOESN’T EXIST UNTIL YOU DEAL WITH IT OCTOBER 2023 • 37 R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T
a visit to the eye doctor revealed I had fluid under my retina, a condition called central serous chorioretinopathy. It’s caused by stress. Also, I started seeing a therapist again and within minutes, over Zoom, he told me I looked depressed. It was a year of the space capsule of my youthful fantasy breaking up on contact with an atmosphere of reality and repercussions, all soundtracked by some of the worst snoring you’ve ever heard. But there are other things to be afraid of besides ageing and so, fearing a breakup or an unexplained disappearance (mine), I tried what Allison had been asking me to do. I went to a doctor. The doctor asked how much I drank a week. I gave him a number high enough that he should factor it into his diagnosis but low enough that I could say it without being embarrassed. He figured I had sleep apnoea and said I should drink less and lose weight. He referred me to a sleep study to confirm the diagnosis so I could get a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine for the apnoea. A CPAP machine is a device that shoots a steady flow of pressurised air into your nose and mouth. It involves a hose, a mask that covers either your nose or mouth or both, and a head harness, resulting in the wearer looking like a cosy fighter pilot, like Top Gun’s Maverick if the undisclosed enemy country were your dreams. I entered the sleep clinic feeling nervous, excited and blisteringly sober. I had successfully adhered to the guidelines sent out by the clinic: no alcohol in the past 12 hours, no coffee in the last two, and no naps. Free from its usual coating of hangover, too-late coffee and postnap delirium, my mind was unadorned and hungry for answers. Next, a technician came and asked me a couple of questions, the most provocative being: what position do you sleep in? I’m mostly a mix of side and stomach, with one leg pitched like I’m doing a hurdle. Overall, though, I would describe my sleeping position as maximum obnoxious. My limbs are splayed as far as they can reach, and I continually thrash and roll from side to side in erratic and irregular movements. Basically, I sleep like David Byrne dances. I sat on my assigned bed, waiting for the sleep lab to begin its work. “Lab” was a misnomer. There were no beakers, or mad scientists, or stainlesssteel tanks with anonymous figures floating in green fluid. Just a generic THE TECH WANTS TO KNOW WHAT POSITION I SLEEP IN. OVERALL I’D DESCRIBE IT AS MAXIMUM OBNOXIOUS 38 • OCTOBER 2023 H O W I T R I E D T O S T O P S N O R I N G
hospital room: infinite white walls; a thin, hard bed that made me feel like I was lying on an H&M clothing shelf; and a pillow that had all the comfort and support of a bag of napkins. Worst of all, something was dripping in the air conditioning unit, producing a sharp, arrhythmic, metallic smack. At 10.45pm, the technician began sticking electrodes to my body for the electroencephalogram, or EEG. Created in 1924, this test measures brain waves without any need for your head to be cut open. It is still the gold standard for sleep studies. The technician also placed sensors on my arms and legs to measure my movement, a sensor below my nose and a harness around my chest to measure my breathing. I don’t know what it says about my self-esteem, but I found being a specimen thrilling. The thrill quickly passed as I proceeded to have the worst sleep of my life. there are two types of sleep: NREM and REM. Both are required for memory consolidation. NREM, or non-rapid eye movement, sleep has three stages. Stage one is drifting off: those five to ten minutes of drowsiness where it is hard to tell if you are asleep or not. Once you are out, the second stage begins. It is marked by slower brain waves and short, fast bursts of brain activity called spindles. The third stage of NREM is slow-wave sleep. Your brain waves are now deep, long curves, similar at times to those seen OCTOBER 2023 • 39 R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T
in people under anaesthesia. It’s in these last two stages of NREM sleep that the majority of restoration—in which the body repairs itself on a cellular level from the wear and tear of the day—happens. Suddenly, the second act of sleep occurs: REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. The brain explodes with activity; it appears to be awake. This is when most dreaming occurs, especially the intense, emotional genre of dreams— the ones that are like “I’m on a date with a book report I didn’t finish.” Beneath the eyelids your eyes dart around wildly, and your heart races. It’s not entirely clear why this happens. Van den Berg’s favourite theory is that it is preparatory. “If NREM is recovery from the day before, REM seems to be preparation for the day ahead.” When you have a good night’s sleep, these different stages are a harmonious cycle. Of course, many things can disrupt this harmony: electric light, caffeine, a late night out or—as I found out—being covered in wires that precariously cling to your body with every toss and turn. Many thoughts can keep you up at night, and in the lab I discovered a new one: “I sure hope that when I turned over, I didn’t ruin this experiment being performed on me.” Another pressure point in the delicate dance of the sleep stages is if there is an unceasing arrhythmic drip of an air conditioning unit the entire night. 40 • OCTOBER 2023 H O W I T R I E D T O S T O P S N O R I N G
i was woken up at 5.30am after two hours of gruel-thin snoozing. The wires were removed, and I strolled home in the dawn light, feeling like my sleepwake cycle and circadian rhythms were utterly and completely ruined. After two months, the results of the study came in. There was no sleep apnoea. I have what the report called “mild primary snoring.” As far as the study could tell, there is no particular reason for it. Ageing, drinking too much, and rapidly deteriorating neck muscles are all it takes. The snoring was simply the sound of time catching up to me. These were not the results I was looking for. I had been hoping for a condition, a disorder, something to point to whenever I indulged in a selfpity wallow. I had wanted a quick fix, even if that meant strapping a glorified bike pump to my face. Instead, what I got were consequences, which coalesce and compound and reverberate, like a snore off the inner walls of your throat. There is no guarantee things will just work out: injuries worsen, tragedy happens, your girlfriend gets fed up with your snoring. When you don’t sleep, it takes days to recover. My snoring has got worse since the study. Louder, more frequent. Thankfully, Allison and I have figured out a staggered sleep schedule that seems to work. Also, I’m exercising more, eating better and drinking less, because from this study, I learned that you are an accumulation of everything you did before. Things aren’t just going to get better on their own. You have to take care of yourself and others. When you ate, what you learned, how you slept: these things matter. The person you are today builds from the person you were the day before. Q © 2023, THE WALRUS. FROM “HOW I TRIED TO STOP SNORING, FIX MY SLEEP HABITS, AND CONFRONT MY MORTALITY,” BY JORDAN FOISY, FROM THE WALRUS (MARCH 15, 2023), THEWALRUS.CA Seasons Pass Autumn colours are funny. They’re so bright and intense and beautiful. It’s like nature is trying to fill you up with colour, to saturate you so you can stockpile it before winterturns everything muted and dreary. SIOBHAN VIVIAN I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE OCTOBER 2023 • 41 R E A D E R ’ S D I G E S T
42 • OCTOBER 2023 HEALTH The advice for living with arthritis is to keep active. But which sports should you choose? Susannah Hickling is twice winner of the Guild of Health Writers Best Consumer Magazine Health Feature No Pain No Gain Yoga In a survey from health website patient.info, 64 per cent of healthcare professionals recommended yoga and Pilates for arthritis. Both are gentle, lowimpact exercises that strengthen the muscles. This in turn helps to support joints. A good yoga or Pilates teacher will adapt the movements to your condition. Golf Physical activity can ease the pain and stiffness of arthritis, but doing the exercise in the first place isn’t always that easy. One manageable low-impact sport is golf. Regular golfers stay active thanks to all the walking they do, but there are other advantages too. A survey by UK and Australian
OCTOBER 2023 • 43 academics found that 90 per cent of golf-playing respondents with osteoarthritis rated their health good, very good or excellent compared with 64 per cent of the general population with the condition. Golfers also reported better mental health, possibly due to the sociable nature of the game. Walking If a round of golf doesn’t grab you, normal walking brings the same health benefits, including a reduction in the risk of heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Brisk walking helps to keep joints flexible. Use walking poles if you need to—you might even want to try Nordic walking, which uses poles to propel you forwards and work your core muscles. But never force a painful joint. Swimming With this activity you are literally taking the weight off your feet. The water supports the weight of your body and reduces the strain on joints. It also provides resistance, which helps strengthen your muscles. And, like other sports, it’s good for your general health and wellbeing. A Korean review of existing research found aquatic exercise reduced pain and joint dysfunction more effectively and improved quality of life more than land-based exercise. Breast stroke is best avoided, though, if you have arthritis in hips or knees. If swimming isn’t for you, there are plenty of other beneficial aquatic activities to choose from, including aqua aerobics classes or aqua walking, which you can do by yourself by simply walking round the pool. Cycling Get outside on your bike and you’ll see improvements to your mental health as well as physical benefits. But a stationary bike is just as good for fitness and for building up muscle around your knees, and you don’t have to worry about the weather or the traffic. A 2021 review of studies by Chinese and Australian researchers found that stationary biking reduced pain and had a positive effect on joint function in people with knee osteoarthritis. Aim to ride for 20 minutes three to five days a week. Bowls and boules I bet you didn’t realise the civilised, sedate game of bowls, or boules if you prefer the French variety, was good for you. Again, there’s minimal stress on joints, and you’ll be enhancing your mobility—and your social life— just by getting out onto a lawn or a pétanque pitch with friends. Q
H E A L T H 44 For more weekly health tips and stories, sign up to our newsletter at readersdigest.co.uk 4. Focus on the rightfoods You might get a boost from certain so-called “brain foods”. These include fish, nuts, blueberries and dark chocolate (in moderation, of course!). One of the best ways to keep your brain in trim is to eat a healthy diet. 5. Sleep well Who doesn’t suffer from brain fog after a bad night? Everyone needs different amounts of shut-eye but aiming for seven to nine hours is considered the ideal. 6. Structure yourlife Having a daily routine, including breaks, will minimise the brain fatigue that goes with having to make endless on-thehoof decisions and allow you to focus on the really important stuff. 7. Fix attention-sapping health issues Tackle hearing problems, which demand excessive and sometimes exhausting concentration, sleep apnoea or depression, and consider whether you might have ADHD. Q 1. Minimise distraction Removing yourself from people and devices will allow you to concentrate better. Work in a different room if you can. If you find yourself sidetracked by digital devices, turn off notifications and train yourself to check them at set intervals. Set a timer. 2. Find the right sound Whether it’s music, white noise or even silence, you might find there’s a particular sound that helps you maintain your attention. This enhances alpha waves—brain waves that promote relaxation and are thought to play a role in cognition and, according to a small 2015 American study, make you more creative. 3. Move your body When you exercise, your heart rate increases, prompting your body to release a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which aids nerve cell growth. This is important for concentration, memory and learning. 7 Ways To Improve Concentration It’s often said our attention span is shorter than ever, and a survey from energy supplements brand ProPlus found that 41 per cent thought it was worse since the pandemic. But there are steps you can take to help you focus better
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46 • OCTOBER HEALTH I loved cigarettes. I mean, really loved them. I loved buying the packet and picking the seal open on the side and opening the box for the first time. I loved the sound of my lighter and the crackling of the tobacco as I lit the cigarette, and the burn of the first breath as it went down into my lungs. I was, to put it simply, in love with cigarettes. Throughout my twenties I told myself that I would give up one day. One Day. That seemed reassuringly far away to prevent me panicking too much, but also definitive enough to fool myself into thinking I’d give up before it killed me. When I’m 30, I decided. But then 30 came and went and nothing happened. It was several more years before I realised that, if I didn’t make a concerted effort, I’d be smoking until I died. I loved smoking, but I knew it was killing me. Then, my gran and aunt died from lung cancer and this had brought on a new round of nagging from my mum about my smoking. Then there was the cough. At about this time, there was a government campaign saying that if you’d had a cough for a month, you should go to the GP to get it checked out as it might be cancer. I’d had my cough for five months. After a family party, my sister called me to say that she’d noticed I was coughing a lot and this seemed to have been going a long time and she was worried I had cancer. I had a moment of horrifying clarity: even if this does turn out to be nothing, unless I decide to stop smoking, there is a high probability that at some point in my life I’ll have a cough or some other symptom and it will be cancer or a similar awful disease. Needless to say, I went to the GP and had a chest X-ray and it wasn’t cancer. But I began to think that I really did need to have a good, hard think about my smoking and what I was going to do about it. I needed to make sure that I definitely loved it enough that I wouldn’t mind dying for it. The more I thought about it, the more I questioned what it was I really loved about it. The fact was, I was an addict. I’d spent several years working in drug addiction clinics and I was making all the Dr Max reflects on his long journey to quitting smoking and why you should do it too Embracing Stoptober
OCTOBER 2023 • 47 Max is a hospital doctor, author and columnist. He currently works full-time in mental health for the NHS. His new book, The Marvellous Adventure of Being Human, is out now kind of excuses that the alcohol and drug addicts I’d worked with over the years made— I could give up whenever I want, you had to die of something, I enjoy it, and so on. I decided to quit. The first time I did it on a whim and after a few days when out for drinks with friends, I caved in and had one. The next day I bought a pack of 20 and that quit attempt was well and truly a failure. But I learned from this and decided the next attempt would be better planned. I investigated different options online, spoke to my GP and met with a smoking cessation nurse at my local surgery who used some CBT techniques to change my thinking about smoking. With all the support around me, I felt so confident about my ability to quit I actually looked forward to the date I’d set to stop. That was nearly ten years ago and I haven’t looked back. Of course, in the early days it wasn’t always plain sailing. There were times when I was tempted and times when I nearly slipped up. But I was prepared for this and didn’t let it throw me off. Stopping smoking was one of the best things I’ve ever done. This October is Stoptober, the NHS and Department of Health and Social Care’s annual “stop smoking” campaign. I know from personal experience how tough quitting can be, but I also know how it can change your life. If you’re a smoker, then I’d encourage you to try Stoptober. The good news is that research shows that if you quit for 28 days, you’re five times more likely to quit for good. You can get support for every day of Stoptober to get you through those 28 days. There’s a Stoptober website and Facebook page, Facebook online communities, a quit smoking app and an online Personal Quit Plan tool that helps people find a combination of support that’s right for them, as well as information on how vaping can help you quit smoking. If you’ve missed the start of Stoptober, then there are still lots of resources available on the NHS website. It’s also really helpful to realise that you aren’t alone—thousands of people are quitting with you, which will further boost your confidence in your ability to quit. If I can quit smoking then anyone can. Give it a go. Q I HAD TO MAKE SURE THAT I LOVED SMOKING ENOUGH THAT I WOULDN’T MIND DYING FOR IT
HEALTH surprise so many of us are overweight. Many people use food for psychological reasons too—to soothe, as a reward or to cope with boredom, anxiety or low mood. So losing weight is no mean feat. Despite your efforts though, your BMI still puts you in the “overweight” category. BMI is a measure of weight taking into account your height. It’s not always helpful—a rugby player, for example, might technically have a high BMI but this doesn’t take into account that their weight is mostly muscle. These are fairly rare exceptions though. For most people, their BMI is a good indicator of if they are a healthy weight or not. We know that people whose BMI is higher than healthy weight are at increased risk of a number of illnesses and conditions, from heart attacks, arthritis and strokes to dementia and cancer. Don’t be disheartened though—instead, keep going and aim to get to within the healthy range. You’ve done incredibly well so far. Keep up the good work. Q Got a health question for ourresident doctor? Email it confidentially to [email protected] The Doctor Is In Q: I recently lost a lot of weight, started eating more healthily and exercisingregularlyfor thefirsttimein decades. I feel amazing, but my BMI still says I’m “overweight”. Do I actually need to lose more weight to be considered “healthy”? A: Firstly, well done for managing to lose weight. That’s fantastic news and will benefit your health in the long term. It’s not easy losing weight. While we like to say people simply have to eat less and move more, in practice that’s far easier said than done. For most of human evolution, the biggest struggle we faced was getting enough food. Famines were common fears that we have evolved to be prepared for and so eat as much as we can when it’s available. Yet for the first time in human history, we (at least, those of us in developed countries) have abundant food that is rich in calories and little real risk of famine. Our minds and bodies haven’t evolved quickly enough to deal with this, meaning it’s far too easy for us to eat more than we really need. Add this to the fact we lead increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and it’s no Dr Max Pemberton 48 • OCTOBER 2023 illustration by Javier Muñoz