Tabla de contenidos para August 2021 en Readers Digest Australia

FRIENDSHIP IS A GIFT, and one that we all treasure. Trusting and confiding in each other is what binds friendships together, but when those foundations are threatened, it can rock an individual to their core. In ‘Scammed By My Best Friend’ (page 108), we witness how low one scammer was prepared to go for financial gain. Olivia Newton-John (page 32) is a name synonymous with good times and happy tunes. But she’d be the first to acknowledge that her personal life has faced some tough challenges, particularly in terms of her health. Despite a diagnosis of breast cancer nearly 30 years ago, and then its return as stage 4 in her back in 2017, Olivia remains positive and is committed to a low-toxic, all-natural lifestyle. This month’s issue offers an…

We usually think of an insect bite or bladder infection as uncomfortable, not necessarily dangerous. But scratch your skin too much, or put off getting antibiotics, and your health could take a serious turn if you get sepsis – you could have trouble breathing or feel faint or disoriented, with no idea why you’re suddenly so sick. Sepsis is a medical emergency that can turn deadly fast. It’s a condition that kills about 11 million people per year worldwide, more than total deaths from cancer. So it’s surprising most people don’t know much about sepsis. It’s not only potentially lethal, it can cause long-term complications for survivors if it isn’t treated early. You may have heard of sepsis by its colloquial name, blood poisoning, or its now obsolete name, septicaemia.…

Beyond Words Every year for my birthday, my husband buys me a particular perfume that has a delicate floral scent that I especially love. This past year, with money tight, I told him not to bother getting me a gift. Instead, I asked that he handwrite a beautiful letter encapsulating our 25 years together. My husband leaned in, gently took my hand, and begged, “Can I please just buy you a bottle of perfume?” SUBMITTED BY LISA COLLINS Horse Trading My daughter told me she wanted a pony but I had to tell her that it was impossible as her dad was allergic to horses. She had a think about this and then asked again. “When Dad dies, can I have a horse?” SUBMITTED BY JESS WARD Slow News Day…

PASTA & VINEGAR Help prevent type-2 diabetes Make your pasta salad with a vinaigrette dressing. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which reduces the spike in blood sugar that occurs after consuming starchy foods high in carbohydrates, such as pasta, rice and bread. A steadier rise in blood sugar reduces hunger by keeping you feeling satiated, as well as helping to minimise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Blood-sugar spikes are best avoided, so that your body isn’t secreting too much insulin in an attempt to manage them. Research in 2015 by the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Germany discovered that acetic acid activates the receptors that inhibit insulin secretion. BEETROOT & EGGS Maintain brain power How about a lunch plate that includes pickled beetroot and sliced…

At a shopping mall, I watched as a man was approached by a kiosk vendor. “Excuse me, can I ask you a question?” said the vendor. The man smiled as he replied, “You just did,” and kept right on walking. I like walking into a shop and immediately realising it’s too fancy but pretending to look around for a few minutes for the benefit of the salesperson, who already dislikes me by default. @sarahclazarus The manager of the shop where I work was dealing with an angry customer. The customer asked him if he could talk to the manager. So the manager spun around in a dramatic 360-degree turn and then said to the customer: “Hi, I’m the manager, how can I help you today?” @ItsStephaniee…

Located on a peninsula, Portrush has two beaches, a lovely harbour, and the usual points of interest of a UK coastal town: an amusement park; Ramore Head and its cliff edges and trails; and the famous Dunluce Links golf course. For surfers, what makes this stretch of coast so special is the promise of consistent swells hitting its uncrowded shores. This is the home of six-time Irish national surfing champion Andrew Hill, but it is still relatively under the radar. To visit in October, as I did, is to discover it’s a surfer’s freezing paradise. I hire a board at Troggs Surf Shop across from my accommodation at the Portrush Townhouse boutique hostel and jump into the water at West Strand Beach. It doesn’t take me long to realise I…

WHILE MANY OF US may remember skipping as something we did as children, the pastime has regained popularity during the pandemic as a way of keeping fit. Not only is skipping a fun, affordable and portable form of exercise, it also has many benefits for our health and fitness. Here are just a few reasons why skipping is such a good form of exercise. 1 IT IMPROVES CARDIOVASCULAR FITNESS Skipping has long been used by boxers as a form of training to help improve their footwork and general conditioning. Skipping will cause an increase in heart rate and breathing similar to if you went jogging. If you were to skip for ten minutes every day, you would create adaptations to your body that are beneficial to cardiovascular health, such as…

1. luminary – A: heat lamp. B: brilliant person. C: film projector. 2. gloaming – A: dawn. B: noon. C: twilight. 3. refract – A: bend. B: scatter. C: dim. 4. parasol – A: glowworm. B: sunshade. C: waxy glow. 5. translucent – A: allowing light through. B: blocking light. C: producing light. 6. scintillate – A: polish until glossy. B: extinguish. C: give off sparks. 7. beacon – A: guiding light. B: camera flash. C: sunbeam. 8. sconce – A: unit of renewable electricity. B: light fixture. C: firework launcher. 9. incandescent – A: white-hot. B: candlelit. C: reflective. 10. heliotropic – A: turning towards the sun. B: tan. C: near the equator. 11. diurnal – A: in a shaded area. B: twice a day. C: active in daytime.…

Where Are We Headed? I have just finished reading ‘Saving the Moon’ (May) and I can’t believe what I read. Looking at the overall picture, humans wanting to explore and set up civilisations out in the universe, not to mention establishing mining companies on the Moon, makes me wonder, where are we heading? Again, it’s all about money. Wanting to establish mining companies to bring minerals back to our planet is beyond belief. Instead of spending millions of dollars on exploratory programmes, we should be looking at securing our world; many countries are gearing themselves for more wars and others are impoverished. Instead of wasting money investigating how to live beyond our world, we should be exploring ways for every country to live in peace and plan how to ensure…

Dry eyes are a common issue for many people but there are ways to soothe sore, irritated eyes. With some simple eye care measures, the discomfort caused by dryness can be avoided. The first thing to do is limit screen time, or at least give your eyes regular breaks from the screen – this is especially important for those whose jobs require them to spend long hours looking at a computer. If your eyes remain dry and sore, try washing your eyelids and lashes with warm water, which should get rid of any environmental particles that may have entered. Warm compresses are also a common approach to soothe dry eyes. Simply run warm water over clean cottonwool balls or pads, close your eyes and lightly press along your eyelash line…

Being forced to stay at home during the COVID-19 lockdown has been something of a blessing for Olivia Newton-John. “I feel guilty for saying it, but I’ve actually enjoyed not being able to go anywhere,” the singer admitted down the phone from her California home during the lockdown. “My life has always been about being on planes and travelling and staying in hotels, so to be in one place for almost a year has been blissful.” Olivia and her entrepreneur husband, John Easterling, live on a horse ranch near Santa Barbara. “And it’s been wonderful having so much time at home,” she says. “I’ve been able to do things like clean out cupboards and garages. I’ve also learned how to make bread, I’ve done arts and crafts-y things, and have…

We’ve handpicked some fresh tweets for you to go bananas over. Basically impossible to carry a watermelon around without seeming proud or ashamed of it. @SAMUELSAULSBURY I only use shampoo that smells like raspberries so people don’t think it’s weird when I have jam in my hair. @DAWN_M_ A cantaloupe is an antelope that doesn’t. @LEONEARLGREY I buy seedless grapes because let’s leave the grape-growing to the vineyards. @DARLAINKY Grapefruit juice tastes like orange juice that just found out it has to work on its day off. @JERMHIMSELFISH…

A few years ago, at a medical laboratory clinic near my father’s home, an elderly woman sat on the edge of a waiting room chair belting out the Celine Dion tune ‘My Heart Will Go On’. Other than a slight rhythmic rocking of her torso to the Titanic theme song, she was motionless, with her arms crossed elegantly over her chest. With little effort, she was able to send her sweet, high-pitched voice exploding into every corner of the clinic. I had fun watching how people reacted. There was a lot of shifting in seats and a couple of stony sideways stares, but mainly they awkwardly averted their eyes and tried to pretend that there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. Business as usual. This sort of thing…

There’s only one health story in town, of course, and that’s my ongoing foot injury. This is because I have just discovered that nasty red hump under my big toe wasn’t tendonitis at all, but gout. Gout! I know, shocking news. Pour yourself a stiff drink to recover! Or don’t, if you’re susceptible to gout. Which you might be. I didn’t think I was. But after six weeks of waiting for a foot X-ray, I buckled and consulted a GP, who diagnosed it in an instant. In as much as I had ever considered the condition, I had imagined that gout was strictly for portly Victorian gentlemen with sideburns, or blokes in tracksuits who subsist solely on beer and crisps. But then the doc scribbled down a list of trigger…

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CAT BEHAVIOUR can often be puzzling and confusing to humans. However, rest assured, your cat isn’t crazy, there’s often a rational explanation for their actions. Veterinarian Dr Katrina Warren shares her expertise on some common and quirky cat behaviours to help you understand why your cat behaves the way it does. MY CAT ALWAYS SCRATCHES THE FURNITURE Scratching is a natural behaviour for cats – it’s a way for them to mark their territory and is how they remove the outer sheath of their claws to expose a new sharper claw underneath. If your cat does not have a suitable surface to scratch, they will choose your furniture or carpet. To protect your furniture, provide at least two scratching posts. These posts need to be stable so they don’t rock or…

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART-HEALTH RISK IS Life partners share a lot of things – and that includes their level of cardiovascular health, according to a JAMA Network Open study. Among the 5364 couples that took part, the correlation was most often the case because they both had the same risk factors, whether it was high cholesterol, smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, high blood pressure or poor eating habits. However, on the flip side, researchers found that partners can also have a positive effect on each other: participants were 2.3 times more likely to quit smoking if their other half did, and 6.4 times more likely to follow the other’s lead in improving their diet. RETHINKING BREAST CANCER SURGERY FOR OLDER WOMEN Breast cancer can often be stopped through surgery –…

YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT. That’s a lesson our parents have long made clear, but we’ve relearnt it the hard way over the past year as the pandemic disrupted much in our lives. That doesn’t mean you have to accept defeat, however, or even delay. These 37 items are domestic superheroes: they have secret skills and there they sit, minding their own business under your sink, in your fridge, or in a drawer. They look so ordinary. Yet once you discover their powers, they will save you unwanted trips to the supermarket, expensive visits from the handyman, gnashing of teeth, and more. 1. Food & Cooking SUBSTITUTE FOR YEAST Looking to make a loaf of bread? Mix one teaspoon of powdered vitamin C (or citric acid) and bicarbonate…

Say what you will about the deprivations of early humanity, but one of the distinct benefits was that time truly was… irrelevant. There was no need to know what the time was and no obligation to get up to do much other than experience the day and dodge another sabre-toothed tiger. Of course, if early humans did want to wake up early, the simplest method was just to drink lots of water before bed and let the call of nature wield its bodily chime. Or, simply sleep where natural sunlight would wake you with its brightness. (Out of the cave, man!) As humans became more sophisticated, the need for an early wakeup call became more important. Ancient Greek philosopher Plato was renowned for his legendary dawn lectures in the 4th…

1. Actor Morgan Freeman turned his 50-hectare property into a sanctuary for what species recently labelled “the most important living beings on Earth”? 2 points 2. What is the name given to Indian food cooked over charcoal in a clay oven? 1 point 3. How many soccer players should be on the field at the same time? 1 point 4. Where in our solar system might it rain diamonds? 1 point 5. What writing implement can be made out of eggshells? 2 points 6. How long is New Zealand’s Ninety Mile Beach? a) 90 miles (145 km) b) 104 miles (157 km) c) 55 miles (88 km) 1 point 7. Who has won more tennis grand slam titles, Venus Williams or Serena Williams? 1 point 8. In several parts of…