Table of contents for March 2018 in Reader's Digest

HOPE MAY SPRING ETERNAL, but historically I wake up short of it, with the glass half-empty, or at least not spilling over full. Not this month, though. This month, filled with the promise of a new diet and this issue’s features, blind optimism has infused even my dreams. “It was so cool,” I recount to Susan one morning, springing up in bed. “I was this hero who went to a supermarket where I handed out cash that was stacked on the shelves. And I didn’t have diabetes anymore.” “Hmmmm,” Susan says, possibly happy for me. She has not undergone the same transformation from watchful realism that I have. My hyper-ebullience continues over coffee. I’ve had type 1 diabetes for almost 40 years, and it has been largely humbling. But thanks…

IT WAS 7:15 A.M. on June 1, 2016, and Gary Messina, now 58, was on his morning run along New York City’s East River. Suddenly something caught his eye—a large 60-year-old man balancing on the four-foot-high railing that guarded the path from the water. As Messina, a New York City Police Department captain (now a deputy inspector), got closer to the scene, the man took a step forward and plunged into the dark, choppy river below. When Messina reached the railing, the man was bobbing in the water, clearly unable to swim. If he had intended to kill himself that morning, he had now changed his mind. He screamed frantically for help as the current pulled him away from the seawall. Other joggers also heard the man’s pleas. David Blauzvern,…

KEEPING IT REEL One day, as a state trooper, I pulled over a young man for speeding. I sat in the front seat of my cruiser and began to write him a citation. He tried making small talk while he waited. “It sure is a beautiful day,” he said. Without looking up, I continued to write. “Yes, it is,” I said. “I wish I was fishing!” He had the perfect response to that. “No offense, sir,” he said. “But I wish you were fishing too.” I laughed so hard, I let him go that day with a warning. JOHN WARNER, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee A GOLFER’S GOODBYE A close friend of ours, Bob, had passed away. We took our eight-year-old son to the graveside service. He was in awe the entire time.…

The Danger of Skipping Breakfast and Eating Late Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania asked nine healthy adults to eat three meals and two snacks daily between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. After doing that for two months, the volunteers took a couple of weeks off before limiting their meals and snacks to between noon and 11 p.m. for two more months. When the group ate only later in the day, their weight, insulin, fasting glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels all worsened, raising their risk for developing heart disease and diabetes. New “Green” Pain Treatment People with chronic migraines and fibromyalgia who looked at a green LED light for one to two hours every day for ten weeks saw a 40 to 50 percent…

One way to save money on household items is to make them yourself. It’s easier than you think. Our new book Homemade has recipes for cleaning products that work as well as the brands, which can be expensive (and filled with chemicals). ▪ Window Cleaner ⅓ cup white vinegar ¼ cup rubbing alcohol 3¼ cups water Mix ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake well. ▪ Multipurpose Cleaner 3 cups water ⅓ cup rubbing alcohol 1 teaspoon clear household ammonia 1 teaspoon mild dishwashing liquid ½ teaspoon lemon juice Combine ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake well. ▪ Furniture Polish 1 cup olive oil ⅓ cup lemon juice Combine ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake well. ▪ Dishwasher Detergent 2 cups borax 2 cups washing soda Combine ingredients (find both in…

IT’S NO EXAGGERATION to say that diabetes is a national health emergency. More than 30 million adults and kids have some form of the disease. Type 1, caused by an immune system attack on the pancreas, usually strikes younger people and follows them throughout their lives. Type 2 is more common and is caused by resistance to the hormone insulin, which tells the body to absorb blood sugar. And 84 million people exhibit signs of prediabetes, which means they have a one-in-ten chance of developing full-blown type 2 diabetes if not treated. Yet over just the past few years, a remarkable number of diabetes treatments, from medications to surgical solutions to high-tech devices, have shown promise. It’s too soon to declare victory, but these breakthroughs have given people with diabetes…

At home: The best HEPA purifier will filter the smallest particles possible, down to 0.3 microns. “I recommend using a HEPA filter in your bedroom at night, since it’s generally the longest period of time you’ll spend in one room,” advises Sarah Coefield. To make sure that it’s powerful enough to be effective, check the clean air delivery rate (CADR) number. The CADR tells you the volume of air being filtered. Choose one that can handle at least two thirds of your room’s area. So, for example, a CADR of at least 80 is needed for a 120-square-foot room. Outside: A respirator face mask keeps smoke out, but check with your doctor before you get one. Folks with heart or lung conditions could actually find it more difficult to breathe…

1. Sophia—A: summer rainstorm. B: great wisdom. C: tremendous wealth. 2. Felix—A: faithful. B: happy. C: catlike. 3. Dolores—A: lady of sorrows. B: maiden of mirth. C: weaver of tales. 4. Natalie—A: birthday. B: first snowstorm of the year. C: princess. 5. Quincy—A: fruit tree. B: the fifth in a series. C: belonging to an ancient family. 6. Melanie—A: circular path. B: melodious. C: dark. 7. Clement—A: warrior-like. B: studious. C: mild. 8. Philip—A: as hard as a rock. B: lover of horses. C: son of Time. 9. Sylvia—A: obsessed with beautiful things. B: inhabiting the woods. C: having clean lines. 10. Benedict—A: ruled by earthly passions. B: emancipated. C: blessed. 11. Phyllis—A: butterfly. B: waterfall. C: foliage. 12. Ursula—A: little bear. B: constellation. C: giant octopus. 13. Vincent—A: winemaker.…

68 Secrets Travelers Need To Know I so enjoyed reading your article but was surprised your tips did not include using a licensed travel agent, whose assistance is often free and can save travelers time and money. We provide personal service, expert advice, and access to exclusive promotions and rates. As a travel professional, I am proud that my clients value my services. CAROL FURST MATULONIS, Fort Pierce, Florida The Student Debt Racket Our son’s monthly loan payment is more than some people’s mortgages. He is employed full time and should be able to make the payments, but he has no room for any unexpected bills. This is a scary time for anyone with student debt and planning a future. MELISSA PENTZ, Dover, Pennsylvania Lost in the Alaskan Winter I…

MARVIN STROMBO was lost behind enemy lines in 1944 when he came upon the body of a Japanese soldier. World War II was raging, and U.S. Marines had just invaded the western Pacific island of Saipan. On the body, Strombo found what he took to be a spoil of war: a Japanese flag covered in calligraphy. He quickly pocketed it, he later told CBS, then searched out his unit. That flag stayed with Strombo for 73 years, displayed in a glass case in his Montana home. As time healed the war wounds, he realized its significance for the dead soldier’s family. But how, after all these decades, could he go about returning it? Meanwhile, a world away, in the Japanese village of Higashishirakawa, Tatsuya Yasue and his sisters, Sayoko Furuta…

Yes. The jury unanimously ruled that Emma Czornobaj was guilty of criminal negligence and dangerous driving causing death. At her sentencing in December 2014, Justice Éliane Perreault explained, “She knowingly engaged in risk taking that she should have foreseen would put other drivers’ lives in danger.” Czornobaj was sentenced to 90 days in jail plus three years’ probation, including 240 hours of community service. She also wouldn’t be allowed to drive for ten years. She appealed the sentences, arguing that losing her license for that long was extreme, especially when the Highway Safety Code requires only a three-year ban for “causing death by criminal negligence and dangerous driving.” In June 2017, seven years after the crash, the three-judge panel on the appeals court disagreed, upholding her conviction and ruling that…

AT A HIGH SCHOOL reunion, a former classmate asked me what I did for a living. I told him, “I’m a mathematician at a large corporation, helping engineers and scientists solve mathematical problems that arise in their work.” With an incredulous look, he asked, “All day?’’ JAMES PHILLIPS, Bellevue, Washington I JUST REALIZED that “Let me check my calendar” is the adult version of “Let me ask my mom.” NOELLE CHATHAM, Quartz Hill, California A MAN placed a package of cookies on my supermarket checkout counter. Unfortunately, one end opened and the cookies tumbled out. “That was the last package!” he said. “It’s all right. We can give you a store credit,” I assured him. “No, I’ll take these,” he said, picking up the stray treats. “I promised my donkey…

He Returned Her Purse And Got Back His Life BY MEGHAN JONES What brought Aeric McCoy to that Baltimore alley was, by his own admission, nothing to be proud of. McCoy was looking for a safe place to do drugs. He had been there for only a minute or so when something clearly out of place caught his eye: a brown leather Rioni handbag, the kind found in high-end stores. “It was like it materialized out of nowhere,” McCoy says. When he picked it up, he found that it had been emptied of everything but an electric bill. “I thought, This person is probably missing this right now.” “I’m just trying to help someone who helped me,”says Kaitlyn Smith, with Aeric McCoy. McCoy, 36, could relate all too well. One…

Almost all the insulin used in the United States is produced by just three companies, and they regularly tweak their formulas to extend the amount of time their versions are under patent protection. The result is that the cost of insulin tripled between 2002 and 2013, according to the American Diabetes Association. In Europe, where copycats are readily available, people with diabetes pay, on average, one sixth of what they do in the United States. No wonder the American Diabetes Association has been asking for the past two years to hold hearings on insulin price hikes by drugmakers. Now, Americans who rely on insulin to control their blood sugar levels are finally getting a break. With the patents on some insulin formulas finally expiring, the first FDA-approved copycat insulin, called…

1 The term common cold is a bit of a misnomer. Common implies that there’s a single ordinary pathogen to blame for your runny nose, coughing, and mild fatigue. Actually, there’s a huge array of viruses—more than 200 of them—that induce colds, each with its own means of evading your body’s defenses. For this reason alone, it’s unlikely that a catchall “cure for the common cold” will ever be found. 2 As for the “cold” part, well, it’s complicated. Scientists don’t know for sure whether low temperatures affect a virus’s pathogenicity, but they do believe that colds are more prevalent in winter in part because we tend to spend more time indoors, in close quarters with infected people and surfaces. 3 On top of this, sucking up dry winter air…

OUR SHIP had been on deployment in the Red Sea for several months when we made a port stop in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The weapons officer gathered all the spare change he could find to use the pay phone on the jetty. He waited his turn in line, fed his money into the phone, and dialed home. His seven-year-old answered and said, “Hi, Dad. Where are you?” The officer replied, “Dubai.” His son said, “OK,” then hung up. DOUG SCATTERGOOD, Vancouver, British Columbia I WAS SENT to Japan by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center to work with American linguists. One day, I contacted the operator and said that I wanted to call Monterey, California. “How do you spell it?” she asked. I said, “M as in Massachusetts,…

In “Men Don’t Cry. Why?” Sandra Newman writes that boys learn early on not to show emotions. It is obvious to me that she has never attended a military funeral. She has never seen a fireman carrying the burned body of a child. She has never encountered a policeman carrying a battered child into the emergency room. She has never seen a man looking at his home being destroyed by a wildfire. Men—real men— do cry. WILLIAM METZLER, Grove City, Ohio Newman’s message was that it’s all right for men to cry. I then read “The Dog Who Saved Our Family.” It turned out to have been very appropriate to have read the article about crying first. MICHAEL FOSTER, Rockville, Virginia CAN WE GET A WOOF WOOF? Is your pet…

You can start having an impact on your immediate environment. Be kind, listen, have goodwill. It has a ripple effect. I’ll start there. GAL GADOT, actress, in People HAVE YOU STUDIED the limits of human attention? We overestimate our ability to do two things at once, and I would advise you to learn about that before you answer that phone in the street. STEVE CASNER, safety expert, in Psychology Today GARDENING, like life, requires courage. We must be brave enough to cut back the old and sit with bare branches, awaiting new growth. And we must trust that it will come. CHERYL RICHARDSON, author, in her book Waking Up in Winter PERFECTION COMES out of molds or off assembly lines ... And the great irony is that we value things…

Back Pain One trick to reducing back pain is to keep your spine in its natural curve. Your best bet is lying on your back or side with a pillow or two strategically placed to take stress off your lower back, says Jeffrey Goldstein, MD, chief of the Spine Service for Education and the Spine Fellowship at NYU Langone Health. “Often people are more comfortable on their back if there’s a pillow behind their knees, or between the knees if they’re on their side,” he says. Hip Pain Whether your hip pain comes from osteoarthritis or overusing a tendon while running, the advice is the same: Lie on your back with a pillow under your knees, which will keep your spine neutral—twisting to neither the right nor the left—and put…

1 GRASS-FED STEAK “Grass-fed meat has been shown in studies to be significantly higher than conventional beef in omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce inflammation. It is also high in creatine, which can build muscle mass in people with rheumatoid arthritis.” EDWARD LEVITAN, MD, cofounder of Five Journeys, a health and wellness company 2 PROBIOTICS “Healthy gut microbiomes may be the key to healthy joints. You can support good gut bacteria by eating foods with active cultures, such as kefir and plain yogurt, along with fermented vegetables, such as sauerkraut. A quality probiotic supplement can help.” SUSAN BLUM, MD, founder and director of the Blum Center for Health 3 GOING GLUTEN-FREE “Even in people who aren’t sensitive to it, gluten can cause inflammation. Eliminating it may reduce pain and increase…

EVEN WHEN nobody feels like cooking, everybody feels like eating. So it’s no wonder that more than 25 percent of the average family food budget now goes to easy-prep meals and grab-and-go foods, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). But it’s not just prepared-food prices that are nibbling at our wallets. Over the past 30 years, grocery prices have risen more than the prices of other items we buy. Americans now spend almost $700 billion a year at the supermarket. Fortunately, we’ve dug up a bumper crop of tools to trim your bill. Tapping technology and shopping around can help. So can sharpening the strategies you use at your usual market, from going on the right day to hitting the right aisles. No matter how you stock your…

“Willy Lo Mein” was a name writer Megan Amram toyed with for a Chinese restaurant in an episode of the TV show The Good Place. Here are other names she used or considered. ITALIAN RESTAURANTS ▪ The Apple Doesn’t Farfalle from the Tree ▪ Lasagna Come Out Tomorrow ▪ J. Paul Spaghetti ▪ You Do the Hokey Gnocchi and You Eat Yourself Some Foods COFFEEHOUSES ▪ The Fertile Croissant ▪ Éclair and Present Danger ▪ Beignet and the Jets ▪ Paint Brioche ▪ From Schmear to Eternity CHEESE SHOPS ▪ Richard Gruyere ▪ Gouda-nough @MEGANAMRAM…

With so many diabetes apps that claim to help you monitor your blood sugar, it can be difficult to choose the best one. University of Florida researchers to the rescue: They evaluated 89 free Android and iOS apps for a 2017 study and rated the quality of information, visual appeal, ease of use, interactivity, and—perhaps most important— how well they track your diet, exercise, stress, sleep, medication use, and other key steps you can take to manage your diabetes. Their top choice: Tactio Health for iOS and Android devices, which can sync with hundreds of different wearables, trackers, and meters (such as Fitbit, Apple HealthKit, and Google Fit) to automatically monitor your health statistics. Another well-regarded app is Accu-Chek Connect. It works with Accu-Chek glucose meters to record results and…

I try not to waste time—because I don’t want to waste myself. OPRAH WINFREY, media personality CONFORMITY IS OFTEN UNCONSCIOUS. TO SAY NO EFFECTIVELY, YOU HAVE TO BE CONSCIOUS OF THE DECISION YOU’VE MADE. JULIE COULTAS, psychology researcher Most of the things that I learn are from the women in my life. JAKE GYLLENHAAL, actor A LOT OF PEOPLE GET A RECORD DEAL AND SPEND THEIR MONEY ON STUFF. I SPENT IT ON CHEESE, BASICALLY. SAM SMITH, singer Somebody told me the secret to happiness is low expectations. I still can’t believe that I have flush toilets. JEANNETTE WALLS, author THAT’S ANOTHER GREAT THING ABOUT GETTING OLDER. YOUR LIFE IS WRITTEN ON YOUR FACE. FRANCES MCDORMAND, actress…