Table of contents for Jun-18 in Readers Digest Australia

DOCTORS are increasingly focusing on the lifesaving benefits of lowering your systolic blood pressure, the top number in readings. A 2015 study showed that volunteers who lowered their systolic pressure to 120 had a 25 per cent lower risk of heart attack and a 43 per cent lower risk of death from cardiovascular causes, compared with those whose systolic pressure was 140. Losing weight, eating less sodium, exercising more and quitting smoking are among the best non-medicinal ways to reduce systolic blood pressure. These tips may also help. SIT PROPERLY For your reading, sit with your back flat against the chair back and your feet flat on the floor (no leg crossing!). SUPPORT YOUR ARM Position your arm at heart level on a flat table. If your arm is too…

YOUR CAT CAN CUT YOUR RISK OF HEART DISEASE Our feline friends lower stress levels and blood pressure, and you’re less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke, according to an American study. The effect even extended to people who’d owned cats in the past. PURRING HELPS HEAL MUSCLES, BONES AND TENDONS Research suggests the sound your contented cat makes has a therapeutic effect. It’s all to do with the frequency. A cat’s purring falls within a frequency range that has been found to improve bone density and promote healing. SAY “HELLO KITTY” FOR HEALTHIER CHILDREN There’s evidence that cats can help children with autism communicate better and be more assertive, and that babies have fewer respiratory and other infections when there’s a moggy around. Children are also…

It’s almost expected that a television series based on a book will have a slightly different storyline. But when a series portrays someone’s life – a life that is well documented – you’d expect accuracy would be important. Not necessarily so. A few episodes into watching The Crown , something odd begins to happen – so assiduously detailed is the Netflix series that it takes on the flavour of a documentary. After spending more than $130 million making the ten episodes in season one, Netflix went to great lengths portraying the British royal family’s super-rich lifestyle. Season two was no different, taking 398 different sets to recreate the opulent interiors of royal aeroplanes, trains and yachts – as well as Windsor, Balmoral and Sandringham Castles, and Buckingham…

AGATHA CHRISTIE Her novels are direct and unadorned, even when the hero is a fussy Belgian. Her language couldn’t be simpler, but her plots continue to fool readers generation after generation. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS: “It was five o’clock on a winter’s morning in Syria.” MICHAEL CONNELLY There’s nothing in the pages of his crime novels but simple, get-going writing. No froufrou, no distractions, just the facts, making him perhaps the best procedural writer in the business. Ever. THE BLACK ECHO: “The boy couldn’t see in the dark, but he didn’t need to.” JANET EVANOVICH Her books are short, sharp and funny. That’s rare in any kind of writing, and she’s prolific in a variety of genres. ONE FOR THE MONEY: “There are some men who enter a woman’s…

I took a call at work and tried to transfer it. I was the only person there. I pretended to be someone else with a British accent. @MORTICAT I texted my boss at the end of my FIRST DAY in the new job with: “Heading out. Love you.” Intended for my boyfriend. @ANGEBASSA Pulled in to gas station and was on wrong side of the pump for my gas cap. Drove around to other side and did it again. Drove away. @SKIMBLECAT After flunking a job interview, got up, shook everyone’s hands and walked into the coat closet. @NOAHVAIL…

PERFECT JOKE A woman walked into a library and wondered whether they had any books about paranoia. The librarian replied, “They’re right behind you.” Source: Reddit.com WATERLOGGED At a boat rental stand, the manager spots a boat out on the lake and yells through his megaphone, “Number 99, come in please, your time is up.” Several minutes pass, but the boat doesn’t return. “Boat number 99,” he again bellows, “return to the dock immediately, or I’ll have to charge you overtime.” “Something’s wrong, boss,” his assistant says. “We only have 75 boats.” The manager pauses, then raises his megaphone: “Boat number 66, are you OK?” Source: Mariniste.livejournal.com…

When I was little, my mum was often unwell and had to go to hospital for long periods of time. To my delight, after a long separation, Mum came home to celebrate my sixth birthday. I was ecstatic. She gave me a doll along with doll’s clothes she had made while in hospital. Dad and my three older sisters all sang ‘Happy Birthday’. I can’t remember whether there was cake or candles – all I remember is the chorus of my family singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Mum’s voice was the loudest, and I remember feeling very special. It was a Friday, and I had my family around me. It had been a while since we’d all been together and I remember – in that moment – that my world felt right.…

“I WISH I HAD TREASURED THE DOING A LITTLE MORE AND THE GETTING IT DONE A LITTLE LESS.” ANNA QUINDLEN, writer “I’ve been very lucky in my life in terms of people who are able to tolerate me.” PATTON OSWALT, comedian “You can’t move mountains by whispering at them.” PINK , singer “It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.” SYDNEY SMITH, English clergyman “NOTHING IN LIFE IS SO EXHILARATING AS TO BE SHOT AT WITHOUT RESULT.” WINSTON CHURCHILL , British prime minister “Art isn’t your pet –it’s your kid. It grows up and talks back to you. ” JOSS WHEDON, screenwriter “Make it a rule of life never to…

CAUSED BY HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) and transmitted via touch or contaminated surfaces, warts are so common that you’re nearly guaranteed to get one over the course of your life. These small, rough skin growths can show up anywhere, but typically affect the face, hands, knees and feet. They’re usually harmless, but can be bothersome and embarrassing. Part of what makes warts so frustrating is that they can take months or even years to go away on their own – and some never do. If you’re tired of waiting, you could try salicylic acid, which is available in over-the-counter treatment kits. It won’t resolve matters overnight but could speed up the process by eroding the wart a little bit at a time. Another option is visiting your doctor or a dermatologist,…

Michael Connelly has been busy. The Wrong Side of Goodbye is the bestselling author’s 29th novel, and his 19th Harry Bosch entry. Connelly is also involved in the Amazon television series Bosch, both as a writer and executive producer. In fact, it was an experience on the set of Bosch that sparked an idea for The Wrong Side of Goodbye. In book 18, Bosch had finally retired from the LAPD. In this next book, he keeps busy with private investigative work and is hired by a very wealthy, very old, business tycoon who’s searching for a possible long-lost heir. But that’s only half the plot. The other half came about by accident, during filming of season two of the television show. While on a three-day shoot to film a complex…

ARITHME-PICK (MODERATELY DIFFICULT) Place one of the four basic arithmetic operations (+, –, ×, ÷) in each box to make a correct equation. Symbols may be repeated, and you don’t have to use all four. All operations are performed from left to right, ignoring the mathematical order of operations. The result at each step must be a positive whole number. What’s the equation? THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT (EASY) The current heights of five growing girls – Jane, Juanita, Jasmine, Jin and Jacqueline – were marked with chalk on a wall, as shown. Can you figure out which line indicates the height of which girl based on the information that follows? Jin is taller than Juanita but shorter than Jane. Jacqueline is shorter than Jane and Jasmine but…

The Power of the Hug Tears came streaming down my face when I read ‘A Touching Gesture’ by Andrea Gaisa (Kindness of Strangers, February). My own difficult circumstances, like those of the writer, cause me to be quite emotional and to break down and weep. Hugs are powerful and can relieve the pain and grief temporarily. And I keep reminding myself that the bad times will be over soon and I just need to be brave now. MAEVIS C. Happy Gut Recently while in my doctor’s waiting room, I picked up a copy of Reader’s Digest and read an article (‘Gut Bacteria’, March) that I have found has really helped me and I wanted to say “thank you”. MARGARET SMITH Who knew that when we eat, we’re not just feeding…

THE OLDER WE GET, the more we obsess over looking younger. Genes are the main indicator of how well (or poorly) you’ll age, but if you tend to indulge in two less-than-healthy habits – heavy drinking and smoking – your face will age much faster, according to a study in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. Danish researchers tapped data from the Copenhagen City Heart Study to track visible signs of ageing in 11,500 adults for 11.5 years. Study participants were queried about how much they drank and smoked as part of a general review of their lifestyle habits. Researchers also examined their ears, eyes and hairlines. The results revealed that, yes, hard living equals fast ageing. Women who downed 28 or more drinks a week were 33 per…

In the past, some disease diagnoses used to strike fear in all of us. But these days, this is no longer always true. Today, vaccines protect us from once-deadly diseases. Antibiotics vanquish infections that used to kill tens of thousands. Cancers that once were highly lethal are now more like chronic illnesses that people can live with for many years. We can all take heart from these amazing advances in prevention and treatment. Hepatitis C Around 23O,5OO Australians and 5O,OOO New Zealanders are infected with hepatitis C. THE GOOD NEWS Now there is a cure. HOW IT HAPPENED In 2013 a new class of anti-viral drugs became available. It was the early 1990s, and 62-year-old Leigh-Anne Maxwell had no idea why, for years, she’d felt so awful; neither did her…

SNAP JUDGEMENT The other day, someone asked me if I knew what self-effacing meant. Using my smartphone to demonstrate, I pointed out the camera and said, “Other people facing…” Then I turned it around and said, “Selfie-facing.” SUBMITTED BY DWAYNE CLIPPERTON KNOW YOUR LIMITS You think you’re pretty OK at doing stuff, then you try to plug something into an outlet you’re not looking at directly. @IANYARDIGAN ON TWITTER COMEDY COMES IN THREES My three-year-old granddaughter, Olivia, was playing with her two- year-old cousin Nathan on the gravel patio when I spotted them throwing stones. I called them both over and told them to stop. “OK, Grandma,” they responded before scampering off. About an hour later, I caught them throwing stones again. I took my granddaughter aside and asked, “How…

ACQUIRED TASTE A food writer described this as “something people only ever say about foods that are horrible”. AHEAD OF ITS TIME A book-publishing euphemism for “it bombed”. COURTESY CALL An unsolicited phone call from a telemarketer. FIXER-UPPER A real-estate term for a property that might be more accurately described as a “tearer-downer”. FRIENDLY REMINDER Urgent warning. LEARNING OPPORTUNITY A mistake. ROBUST EXCHANGE OF VIEWS A shouting match. ZERO-TASKING An impressive-sounding business term to use instead of admitting that you’re doing absolutely nothing. Source: Spinglish, by Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf…

EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD PETER REILLY sat in the interrogation room in a daze. After 25 hours of intense questioning, he’d just signed a confession confirming that he’d brutally murdered his own mother, 51-year-old Barbara Gibbons. “We got into an argument,” he told interrogators. “I remember picking up the straight razor, and I slashed towards her throat.” Just a day after Barbara’s body was found, the murder was an open and shut case. Based on his confession, a jury sentenced Peter to between six and 16 years in prison. The only problem? He was innocent. The teenager’s memor y of his mother’s murder was entirely false. In 1975, two years after his conviction, Peter was set free, exonerated by evidence that proved he couldn’t have been at the scene of the crime. By…

The keys to maintaining strong, long-term friendships often take a lifetime to learn. We asked some of the longest-lasting duos (and trios!) how they’ve managed to make their bonds unbreakable. Honesty is always the best policy Heather Hopkins credits her decades-long best friendship (and that’s saying a lot because she’s only in her 30s) to her commitment to honesty. “Never be scared to tell your best friends how you are really feeling about any situation. A true friend will always appreciate and be grateful for honesty, even in the stickiest of situations. If your real friends can’t be honest and truthful, do you think the transients and acquaintances in your life will be?” Always assume the best “Assume that everything they do is with good intentions, even when that assumption…

I NEVER MUCH LIKED CARS. This was something of an issue in my family, as my father very much liked cars. His first business was a start-up selling ‘funky’ hub cap covers. His cufflinks had Bugattis on them. I don’t remember him ever reading anything apart from Classic and Sportscar. By the time he was my age, he’d established himself as a foremost specialist in the art of restoring vintage Bentleys. Our house was full of memorabilia. The vaguest sniff of a doer-upper would have him out in the snow, blazing a trail to West Sussex. As I say, he very much liked cars. So, when I came along, there was an expectation I’d like cars too. My bedroom was plastered with Bentley wallpaper, which, as a teenager, I painted…

1. In 1971, Alan Shepard struck a golf ball that went for “miles and miles and miles”. Where was he? 1 point 2. The orange carrot that we are familiar with today was first bred in which European country? 1 point 3. What movie’s soundtrack was the bestselling album worldwide in 2014? 1 point 4. Which organ makes up only two per cent of your body’s weight but requires around a fifth of its energy? 1 point 5. Who was the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic? 1 point 6. What type of animal is a drongo? 1 point 7. Which country’s Qassim University hosted a 2012 conference about women in society – with no women in attendance? 2 points 8. Which country issued a rectangular coin…

Mountain Gets People Rights New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki has been granted the same legal rights as a person. And in acknowledgement of their relationship with the mountain, which they regard as an equal, eight local Maori tribes will share its guardianship. Its new status gives the mountain legal protection, and means that harming it is the same as harming one of the tribes. “IT IS ABOUT THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT OF ARTISTS TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES FREELY.” Luca Bergamo, Rome’s deputy mayor, on the decision to revoke the banishment of the poet Ovid from Rome to present-day Romania by Emperor Augustus after 2000 years. A Neat Way to Keep Fit A new, environmentally aware fitness trend that started in Sweden is catching on fast. ‘Plogging’ involves collecting litter while jogging. (The word…

1. amoral adj. – A: point of a story. B: outside the scope of moral judgement. C: small mushroom. 2. monolingual adj. – A: speaking one language. B: a repetitive sound. C: having a tongue that isn’t forked. 3. neonate n. – A: newborn. B: a new employee. C: illuminated sign. 4. bigamy n. – A: marriage to more than one person. B: twofold increase in size. C: twice-removed relative. 5. geostationary adj. – A: world map on paper. B: designed for digging soil. C: matching the Earth’s rotation. 6. dysfunction n. – A: abnormal workings. B: power surge. C: fire prevention. 7. hexadecimal adj. – A: of a number system with a base of 16. B: six-sided die. C: one sixth of…

THE THYROID, A BUTTERFLY- shaped gland in the neck, produces hormones essential for metabolism and brain activity. Symptoms of a thyroid problem are often vague, but if you notice any of the following signs or have more than one, see your doctor for a simple blood test to gauge your hormone levels. The symptoms of an overactive thyroid and an underactive thyroid are both easily treated. 1 SLEEP CHANGES If you’ve always been a good sleeper but suddenly can’t snooze through the night, it could signal a thyroid problem. An overactive thyroid pumps out certain hormones (triiodothyronine, known as T3, and thyroxine, known as T4) in excess, which can overstimulate the central nervous system and lead to insomnia, says Dr Hossein Gharib, a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist. On the flip side,…

Ever been into a cockpit? There was a time when children and enthusiasts were invited to get a glimpse of what it was like in the business end of the aeroplane. Still, much of it remained a mystery. So what do all those buttons do? According to the book How to Land A Plane, written by Mark Vanhoenacker, a huge effort goes into making it all very simple. In a piece published by telegraph.co.uk, he says the External Power Control switch usually gets the most attention. It’s the button that keeps the aircraft powered while it is parked. “You may hear a click or notice a brief flicker of the lights just before departure. That’s the pilots turning on the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) and deselecting the external power –…

To see how easily the brain creates false memories, try this test on a friend. Read them the following list of words: bed, rest, awake, tired, dream, wake, snooze, blanket, doze, slumber, snore, nap, peace, yawn, drowsy. A minute later, ask them to recall the words. If one of their remembered words is “sleep”, congratulations – you’ve just successfully implanted a false memory by association. From the study Creating False Memories: Remembering Words Not Presented In Lists by Henry L. Roedigger III and Kathleen B. McDermott…

KARMIC JUSTICE Canadian court judge Mark Tyndale has given blood a whopping 870-plus times. Now 60 years old, donating was a simple way to save lives. But in 2013 he found himself on the other side of the equation when he was rushed to hospital with a deadly flesh-eating disease. Fortunately, what goes around comes around. Tyndale survived after receiving 11 litres of gamma globulin, which, given his prolific donor record, quite possibly contained his own plasma. CALL TO ACTION Australian James Harrison received a life-saving blood transfusion in 1951, at age 14. Inspired, the boy pledged to become a donor himself. It’s a good thing he did: 16 years later, his blood was found to contain an antibody that was used to create a vaccine to prevent haemolytic disease,…

Movies Lean on Pete (Drama, Action) After a series of hard knocks, 15-year-old Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) and his single father, Ray (Travis Fimmel), move to a new city for a fresh start. All Charley wants is a home, food on the table and to attend the same school for more than one year. But Ray soon descends into personal turmoil, forcing Charley to find work. He takes a summer job caring for an ageing horse – Pete – at a nearby racecourse, where things start to improve. Based on Willy Vlautin’s much-loved novel, Lean On Pete is the compassionate and moving story about the fundamental human need for love, acceptance and family. Jurassic World : Fallen Kingdom (Science Fiction) It’s been three years since the Jurassic World theme park…