Good news for cancer survival

Four out of five people diagnosed with cancer of the breast, prostate or testes will survive five years, say figures released today by the UK Office of National Statistics. Between 2005 and 2009, the number of people who survive a cancer diagnosis has continued to increase.

This is thanks to increasing screening and treatment options for patients, the latter of which is made possible through scientific research done on live human tissue.  But in 2006, 56 of the world’s leading breast cancer specialists got together to analyse the gaps in research. The greatest obstacle they agreed, was access to live tissue samples for use in their research.  Five years later, the world’s first breast cancer tissue bank was opened, funded by the UK charity Breast Cancer Campaign.  It will make further research possible into the 20 per cent of women who still don’t survive their cancers.   Based in four centres in the UK – Leeds, Birmingham, London and Glasgow – it will be banking live breast and tumour tissue from women post-mastectomy on a larger scale than ever before.

Under normal circumstances, some tissue is taken from each patient post-surgery and used for diagnosis post-surgery.  Now, this remaining breast cancer tissue will be banked giving scientists  access to more live tissue that’s crucial to turning their theories into viable patient treatments.

Today’s ONS figues unfortunately  also show survival from brain, lung, oesophagus, pancreas and stomach cancers is still only 20 per cent, meaning only  one in five people currently survives five years after diagnosis.  However, during the filming for the recent film I made highlighting the work of the breast cancer tissue bank, leading oncologist Professor Alastair Williams said:

‘The breast cancer tissue bank presents the chance for scientists to take their theories to the next stage of research, increasing their potential  for turning into powerful treatments.  The discoveries made into how breast cancers behave and metastasise [spread] can also influence the way other cancers are treated meaning the work of the new tissue bank may positively impact survival not only for breast cancer patients but for people living with other cancers too.’

Watch this film to find out more. We shot it at Bart’s Hospital in London with the help of the lovely team of clinicians and scientists and all round good people at Breast Cancer Campaign.  It was produced by Print and Visual Media

If you are thinking about running the marathon you could do worse than choose BCC as your charity. I would so love to run it but so far have not got beyond thinking about it in terms of training…If you need inspiration, here is another film I have just completed about Charlotte Pittuck, who has taken the plunge to run the marathon and is actually training.   It too was produced by Print and Visual Media

Charlotte last year found out she has the BRAC2 gene for breast cancer which gives her an 80 per cent chance of developing breast cancer.  But thanks to research like that being done by the tissue bank, Charlotte has found out early about her risk and will at 30, have an operation to remove and reconstruct both her breasts taking her risk down to just six per cent – the same as that of most of us living without the gene.  Charlotte has three small and oh-so-cute children who you will see on this film so it’s incredibly heartening news.

You can read Charlotte’s blog here or follow her on Twitter @PitzPoodle

Aussies ban branding on cigarettes

Today Reuters reports Australia has become the first country in the world to ban branding on cigarette packets.  From December next year, cigarettes in Oz will come only in olive packaging without any mention of the brand, only graphic images of the harm cigarettes can cause.

But it’s not that long ago that it seemed the whole world smoked, even in Australia.  I remember as a kid how glamourous the older girls seemed laying on the beach, all toned Reef-Oiled limbs and Ray-Bans, a ‘Winnie Blue’  - Aussies even shorten the names of their cigarettes – clutched between their fingers.  As they exhaled two long lines of smoke from their nostrils, they looked to me like exquisite bronzed dragons.   If it looked to me as a child in the 70s as though just about every grown woman I knew was smoking, it’s because they were. Cancer Research UK reports smoking in men peaked in the 1940s but it was in the 1970s that female smoking reached an all-time high when a staggering 44 per cent of women smoked.    My mother was never a true smoker but even she had a brief sojourn with the wistfully named ‘St Moritz’ cigarettes – despite being an asthmatic. Thanks to covert but aggressive marketing by Phillip Morris et al those long, white stems flanked by little silver bands and the remnants of her red Chanel lipstick became a symbol of her glamour.

The tobacco industry directly marketed cigarettes to women like my mother.  In a campaign no doubt orchestrated by a real life Don Draper or two, Phillip Morris’ 1968 advertisement for the Virginia Slims cigarettes campaign, ‘You’ve come a long way baby’ implied all emancipated women smoked.

It kind of worked.  In high-income countries, including Australia, Canada, the United States of America and most countries of western Europe, a WHO report found that women now smoke nearly the same rate as men and 200 million of the world’s billion smokers are women.

But when it comes to public health campaigns, Australia beat those Don Drapers at their own game.  I still remember the  impact the straight to the point and always cringingly irreverent public health ads had on our behavior as kids.  Take a look at some from my teen years.  What elegant word economy eh, mate?

Maybe this Aussie move will make a difference and plain packaging and scary graphic images on packs will filter into other countries.  We’ll see.  Not surprisingly, three tobacco giants are threatening to sue the Aussie government for billions in lost revenue.  Wonder whose side Don Draper will be on.

THE FUTURE OF MY FACE

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Despite warnings from wrist-slapping pundits, I never really believed the lifestyle you lead could show on your face.  We have wrinkle doctors, Touche Eclat and endless ways to manipulate light for that. It seemed absurd that my monthly benders or daily chocolate bar could make any difference.

But earlier this year, I was forced into a rethink after stumbling upon changemyface.com, a website run by Auriole Prince, a forensic artist specialising
in Age Progression.   Trained by the FBI, Prince’s day job is in ageing missing persons and criminals in police investigations.  The lifestyle an individual has led, she says, plays a key part in the way she ages their face.  Now through her site, people can have their images manipulated in the same way to see how they would look after certain surgery procedures or – if they really wanted it – how they would age after a life spent smoking, drinking or eating too much of the wrong foods.

Staring down the barrel of 42, I’d begun to notice signs that perhaps my lifestyle was making me look older.  Morning ‘pillow marks’ took longer to disappear, I needed to see my reflection in ever-lowering light to be able to leave the house with self-esteem intact, only to get a fright when – under the normal wattage of any public toilet mirror – I saw what I really looked like.  Shopkeepers always called me ‘madam’. People asked me ‘what’s wrong’ when I was perfectly happy.  I had begun to notice the same signs of age in my girlfriends.  Even the Botoxed ones.

‘After 40, your body stops forgiving you for your lifestyle,’ said my dermatologist, Dr Nicholas Lowe at London’s Cranley Clinic, coming at me with a syringe containing my bi-annual botulinum toxin top-up.  ‘Botox and filler can only do so much,’ he said. ‘But smoking, drinking and eating a diet high in sugar can do irreversible damage.’

Studies on identical twins like these have compared one leading a healthy life with another that has smoked, drank and eaten a diet high in processed food and sugar and seen around 15 years added to the appearance of the skin.

In the past there have been days when I can’t face a deadline without a Galaxy Bar or three.  Having smoked sporadically in my 20s – about a pack of 20 every couple of days – I gave it up at 30 though I’m still known to have the odd puff after a few merlots.

Ahh merlot – my friend.  Getting older hasn’t mellowed my taste for it.  I used to have a glass of red every other night, and every couple of weeks go out and get a little tipsy – well okay, shattered – with my girlfriends.  Most women I know drink the same way.  Anyone of them will tell you that’s absolutely normal, for any professional, 30 or 40 something with a social life, family and stressful job.

My nights out had even developed their own name.  Shout Offs.   Feeling ‘let out’ I would get so happy go lucky I’d somehow end up taking unregistered mini-cabs home, screaming in private clubs about the state of the economy and flirting with strange men so that post night out  my handbag contained cards from pimply insurance salesmen.  The summer before last my husband Kevin, after spotting me clutching my wine glass while watering the garden, began to call me ‘Joanie’ followed by a little hiccup, after a boozing Joan Crawford.

To investigate exactly what lifestyle does to skin, I talked to experts in ageing, dermatology and plastic surgery and asked Auriole Prince to doctor my image using Age Progression techniques showing what I would look like in ten years time as a result of smoking, drinking or eating too much sugar.

 NOW AT 42

As I am now (plus good lighting)

‘In the photo of Anna as she really is today there’s still a lack of wrinkles and the skin has a plump, smooth texture, evidence of good genes and a reasonably good lifestyle in her 30s,’ says Dr Lowe.  ‘In the doctored shots, Anna looks at least ten-15 years older with deep wrinkles, skin redness, bloating and sagging.  These photographs show exactly what an unhealthy lifestyle can do to your face.’

 AFTER A DECADE OF SMOKING

In ten years at 52, after a decade of smoking 20 a day

Deep wrinkles ‘Smoking makes all lines worse by damaging the collagen and elastin in the skin that give it its plumpness,’ says anti-ageing physician Dr Lynette Yong.

Tooth damage ‘Smoking, as well as red wine and orange sugary drinks stain teeth,’ says Harley Street dental surgeon Dr Simon Darfoor.   ‘Smoking also leads to gum disease and tooth loss with 42 per cent of smokers aged over 60 having none of their own teeth.’

Sagging brow, eyelids and cheeks ‘With age the muscles, fat and bones under the skin shrink and this can lead to sagging,’ says Dr Yong.  ‘Smoking deoxygenates the blood so you get less nutrients going to the skin, dramatically accelerating this sagging’.

Dark circles ‘Reduced circulation makes skin appear sluggish and dark circles become more prominent,’ says Dr Yong.

10 YEARS OF BOOZING

After ten years of three small glasses or two large glasses of wine every night

Redness  ‘Drinking causes enlargement of the blood vessels,’ says Dr Lowe. ‘This causes flushing and if you’re prone to rosacea, could exacerbate it’.

Thread veins ‘After flushing from occasional or moderate drinking, blood vessels usually bounce back,’ says Dr Lowe.  ‘But if someone with a tendency towards flushing drinks to excess night after night, in as little as two years the blood vessels lose tone and they can end up with permanent redness and thread veins’.

Faint necklace lines.  ‘These go horizontally across the neck and occur at points where the skin attaches to underlying tissue to hold the skin up,’ says Dr Yong.  ’These lines are hereditary and little that can be done about them other than surgery though drinking, smoking, sun exposure and a sugary diet can make them worse.    Plus, if you have poor neck posture and chronically slump your chin  forward, then the tissues over time sag and make these lines more prominent’.   

 Crow’s feet  ‘Big drinkers are chronically deficient in vitamin A which is essential to collagen and elastin formation,’ says plastic surgeon Dr Jonathan Staiano, of Liberate Cosmetic Surgery Group.

Forehead lines  ‘Drinking dehydrates the skin leaving which can lead to sallowness, deepening of wrinkles and increased dryness,’ says Dr Yong.

A DECADE’S JUNK AND SUGAR HABIT

If I spend the next years gorging on sugar, cakes, junk food and refined carbs

Lines and sagging

‘A diet high in sugar and high glycaemic carbohydrates such as breads, rice, starches, potatoes, baked goods, pastas, desserts and soft drinks can lead to glycation in the skin,’ says Dr Nicholas Perricone, dermatologist and the world’s leading authority on diet and ageing.  ‘This is where sugar molecules attach to collagen fibres and cause them to lose their strength and flexibility so the skin becomes less elastic and more vulnerable to sun damage, lines and sagging.’  Avoid over-exercise.  ’Too much physical exertion in the form of long periods spent on running and other aerobic exercise or hours of weight training can have a detrimental effect on skin and promote ageing,’ says Dr Nicholas Perricone.  ’This causes the production of more of the same inflammatory free radicals that a sugary diet produces’.

Waxy, bloated face ‘Too much sugar and white, refined carbohydrates can give skin a soft, doughy look,’ says Dr Perricone.  ‘The sharp definition, contoured cheekbones and crisp jaw line become blurred because carbs create an inflammatory response that causes more inflexible skin, puffiness and a loss of radiance.’

Pimples ‘A high sugar diet makes you more prone to infection,’ says Dr Staiano.  ‘In the skin this manifests as acne and as bugs feed on sugar, the more you eat the more pimples you may have.’

Grey, thin skin ‘Eating a low protein diet makes the epidermis or outer layer of the skin thin and crepey, leaving it looking grey and sallow,’ says Dr Staiano.

AGE PROGRESSION IMAGE HOW I WILL LOOK ANYWAY

Still scary enough to turn me back to the Merlot.

Nothing prepared me for how real these images would look.  My husband Kevin was walking past the computer and caught a glimpse as I opened the one after ten years spent eating a high sugar, high junk food diet.  I thought I looked like the pre-diet Monica Gellor.  But he wasn’t impressed.

‘One word,’ he said. ’Divorce.’   I don’t think he was joking.  But then again, he is no Mona Lisa himself.  See below.

he is the one on the left

I couldn’t relate to the images and talked about them in the third person while going through the wrinkle-by-wrinkle damage with the doctors.  ‘In the smoking one, she looks saggy…,’ I would say, unable to believe it was me.

Although I am  often the delivery girl for many a heart disease or liver cirrhosis warning in print, there has been nothing more powerful than this excursion into the future of my face to drive home the effect of my lifestyle on my face.

Since seeing the images I have thanked God repeatedly that I gave up smoking 12 years ago, virtually given up sugar altogether and cut back dramatically on my drinking even managing one complete night out on mineral water in a wine glass – no one even noticed.

Read more about this and how to control some of the damage in the November issue of UK Marie Claire magazine

Podcast: What’s so great about the De-Stress Diet?

De-Stress Diet Intro Pod

Here is a new introductory podcast from myself and my co-author Charlotte Watts talking about our new book, the De-Stress Diet that you can pre-order from Amazon right now.  It is out on January 2nd and there will be free weekly podcasts to help you through the 6-week plan in the book to help you shape up and calm down.  My dream was to find a diet that made you feel good as well as lose weight, instead of making you feel hungry and irritable – while still allowing you to have a life (ie the odd night out on the tiles).  That is the beauty of this plan.

Have a listen to this five minute podcast.

Huge thanks to my brilliant intern Alexandra Gore who has produced and edited this podcast.

Health Holy Grail II: Three months without telly…

I know, unbelievable right.  What’s more flummoxing is that of all the diet and exercise regimes I have tried in my life it was this simple of act of giving up telly that caused the greatest changes to my life overall – including three kilos weight loss.   It appeared as a feature in the October 2010 issue of Sainsbury‘s magazine.  Here’s exactly what happened:

March 9, 2010

It’s day 2 – yesterday was easy because I worked until midnight, the only glitch in the plan was when someone mentioned an earthquake that had happened in Turkey and I knew nothing about it.  I normally rely on bbc breakfast for a quick run down of morning talking points before moving on to the papers at lunch.  But having missed that, I looked like a major ignoramus – what happened in Turkey?  Oh only an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale.

The only good thing is sitting at the table to eat breakfast, maybe I could get the paper delivered?

Tonight, having had very little sleep, I have just finished a big work project and would love the chance to relax on the sofa with a great movie and block of choclate.  My partner is away and the only other option is yoga, I can’t not go home to the sofa.  Oh God!!  There is all sorts of rehab available for people with drug and alcohol habits.  What help is there for TV addicts?

I just can’t bear the thought of not having my night on the sofa with peas, corn and crumbed haddock or some other nasty delight and a couple of hours rubbish TV.  How else does one deal with such extreme tiredness?  If I went home to read I would be asleep by 8pm, guaranteed.

March 12, 2010

No slips, mainly because I have discovered something called radio. At dinner it’s classical music, suddenly discovered I could bear opera and radio 4 in the morning, so I finding myself feeling decidedly grown-up.  I’ll be listening to the Archers next.  I am sleeping better and actually eating less but that’s because I usually wait until 9pm to head home because it’s way too quiet in there without anyone in the house.

March 17, 2010

I spent a whole weekend filling my time with an entire novel, lunch with a girlfriend, a very long conversation with another – even though I normally hate the phone, which she actually asked about.  Weird I am starting to call more friends and speak to them for longer because I am doing everything slower, having discovered all these new hours.

Last night my husband got home and actually facing eachother and speaking during dinner was kind of novel and strange at first, but it wasn’t long before we both started to enjoy it because there was no reason for it like ‘ooh we have to sit down and have a TALK,’ which would put anyone on edge but makes him unusually edgy.

Still, I miss the delicious no pressure slumping, the slothfulness of lying on the sofa not even having to do anything but be fed a silly plot or witness a deluded reality tv wannabe, or listen to someone recounting their surgery story.  There is no pressure to respond, to know, to say anything!  That’s what I miss.  So much so that I actually relished reading the TV Guide in the Guardian and despite not having watched any telly turn to pages like Charlie Brooker’s screen burn to live vicariously through other people who actually watch TV.

I also really, really miss –most of all – Country House Rescue and all those pompous poshies with no thread of a hold on reality and those amazing houses. I might just have to watch one this Thursday night. I think TV really feeds the voyeur in us and it’s safer and more polite than other forms of it.

Nonetheless, I keep reading about all these studies that have found how much fatter chronic TV watchers are than those that don’t indulge the idiot box that often.  The thought that this might make me thin is probably stronger for me right now – with a  summer holiday in the Caribbean coming up – than the lure of some rural eccentric and their TLC-needing mansion.  But there is only a fraction in it.

24 March 2010

One benefit – I haven’t had this much sex since first getting married in 1999.  You go to bed early and usually have loads of energy while ‘reading’ – we even didn it twice in one day like teenagers.

‘One benefit – I haven’t had this much sex since first getting married in 1999′

Here’s one thing killing me, I am so divorced from cultural conversation starters.  Someone just said ‘you are SO Rachel from Glee,’ and I have no idea what they are talking about.  Who is Rachel?  What the devil is Glee? Before a night out with girlfriends I am trying to get cribbed up on the E4 website. That is not good.

I have never done so much yoga, eaten so little junk, listened to so much radio 4 and generally been a more functioning ADULT ever before.  It will be the Archers omnibus next.

March 31, 2010

The human need for distraction is obviously a strong one; for a voice in one’s head, for stimulation and media is amazing – or just me.  My new habit is lowbrow magazines. I am averaging two in one day – cover to cover – I am now an expert on Cheryl Cole and Sandra Bullock’s marriages and also know that Cameron and Justin might get back together and there is a new street drug called meow meow destoying our nation’s youth, even though every youth I know seems more interested in surfing the net and drinking camomile tea.  Not sure what is better trashy mags or trashy telly, they are both as addictive.

‘I am so divorced from cultural conversation starters.  Someone just said ‘you are SO Rachel from Glee.’  Who is Rachel?  What is Glee?’

I have just spent £300 on a fancy retro portable Robert’s Radio so I can have John Humphiries in my head as I shower, blow-dry, cook and fix my face.  Won’t get through this without his mellifluous tones.

April 7, 2010

Broke it last Friday night – was so tired and NEEDED to slump.  Bought crisps and watched three taped eps of Country House Rescue in a row, which I miss the most. But I realised televsion sucks energy as I was actually delirious by the end of the night and not feeling chirpy and positive as I have been since starting it.  I felt tired and cranky the next day and was so surprised that a good few hours of telly didn’t actually made me feel any better but seemd to such the very life from me.

Am having a bad day today and want to slump but trying to think of alternatives, calling a friend, having a hot bath, cooking a meal with some gorgeous music on and having a gorgeous hot bath.  No TV forces you to come up with alternatives to make yourself feel better and I think that is its beauty.

April 27, 2010

Now the most unbelievable change is in my energy levels. I sleep right through the night and am barely tired by 11pm or during the day – this could be due to going to more yoga, seeing friends, seeing films, listening to the radio (even gardener’s question time), cooking more and generally actively entertaining myself and my husband and the people at home more.  This – and the idea that every single meal we have at home – from breakfast on a weekday to Sunday dinner – we have at the table.

‘I have just spent £300 on a fancy retro portable Robert’s Radio so I can have John Humphiries in my head as I shower, blow-dry, cook and fix my face.  Won’t get through this without his mellifluous tones’

The other night, one thing I really enjoyed was that Kevin got his guitar out and was playing guitar at the table after dinner while I sang (poor, poor man).  It really was such fun, at least for me if not the neighbours.  I can’t help noticing how elevated my mood is – why is that?  I am not sure I will ever go back to watching all that mindless telly again.  The only things I miss:

Stand up comedy on comedy central

Country House Rescue

30 Rock

Question Time

That really is it, but in comparison to the things I have gained – two new gorgeous Robert’s radios, a new love of radio 4, about 100 per cent more energy and three LESS pounds on the scale, and nearly tripled my yoga practice and work output, it’s barely a trade off.  I am aware I am working more and longer and it’s harder to punctuate the day with an end and a beginning when there is no telly to go home to, but by the same token it has opened up a whole new world of evening life, extra options open to me (esp shopping).

3-Jun-10

Who would have thought that of all the things that would finally make me cave in and watch three hours of television, it would be the Eurovision Song Contest.  Not the political leader debates or a cliffhanging election, not an ash cloud over the UK and not even Britain’s Got Talent.  But a tacky song pageant whose predictable outcome and ridiculous costumes I can never ever resist.  I still felt like a zombie afterwards and crawled up the stairs to bed feeling strangely exhausted physically buut mentally wide awake.

Now when Kevin has it on in the other room it seems so noisy, like useless and meaningless chatter polluting my home.  But the best best best thing is eating at the table, whether it’s breakfast or even a snack of crisps, I put them in a plate and eat them at the table.  As a result I am actually eating less. Not sure if it’s showing on the scales tho.

June 7^th

‘Have you been living in a bubble or something?’  I had failed to hear about two little girls mauled by a fox and hw was offended by my ignorance of the most basic of news.  That’s a cultural currency and I know I have been missing out.

I also miss out on family and friends time if people staying over or my husband want to unwind in front of the TV.  I simply have a bit of an allergy to the rubbishness of it.

June 9^th

Now I am trying to face the fact that this ‘detox’ is about the finish, but I really don’t want to go back to my old TV watching habits, having seen such a change in myself.  I have decided to set myself a limit of seven hours a week – and circle five hours I want to watch in the tv guide and allow a few hours for a couple of films.  The news though, I am sticking with the Today show gang, newspapers and on line.

Some great news, as well as devouring books and having enrolled to study part-time as a yoga teacher, I have also lost 3 kilos and people keep commenting on how well I look.  This by far is the best bit, but then so is this newfound social life.  This week I am going out Tuesday, Thursday and Friday night and all day Saturday, where during my telly watching days, I always felt like I was desperate to lounge on the sofa and ‘relax’ I rarely actually did anything else.

Oh and I have started cooking during the week.  It’s amazing how when you’re forced to you fill in time with things you enjoy. I have become a vegetarian gourmet and long unbroken spines of my massive cookbook collection, which I used to look at over come dine with me, often while eating basic chicken pasta, have finally begun to look used, even dog-eared.

To say ‘it’s the best thing I have ever done,’ sounds evangelical, but as someone who is always trying out new diet regimes, exercise plans and treatments, the most flabbergasting result of doing something as seemingly odd as giving up TV is that the list of benefits is longer and better than anything I’ve achieved from a body boot camp or diet.

New Year Special: Searching for the Health Holy Grail. First up – 8 weeks without booze

Thinking of giving something up in January in pursuit of a better, slimmer or more whatever you?  In my work, I have given up everything at one time or another – from drinking to sugar, worrying to spending – though thankfully not at once and kept pretty detailed accounts of what happened.  If you like that kind of thing, during January, as a treat (of sorts) I’ll post up some of my diaries under the series, Health Holy Grail

If you have an honest account of giving something up – successful or not, send it over and I will post it.

Today:

Eight Weeks without booze.

Yes.  Eight.  Whole.  Weeks.

Problem drinker?  Moi? I have a glass of red every other night, and every couple of weeks or so I go out and get a little tipsy – well okay, shattered – with my girlfriends.  Most women I know drink the same way.  Anyone of them will tell you that’s absolutely normal, for any professional, 30 or 40 something with a social life, family and stressful job.  Besides, we could give it all up tomorrow, no problem.  Honest.

Trouble is, getting older hasn’t mellowed my taste for merlot.  It’s transformed it from something I could take or leave – a glass of champagne at a work do or cool lager on a Sunday afternoon – in my 20s into something I absolutely had to have in my 30s.   Like Pavlov’s Dog, come 6pm at the end of a bad day, I could actually taste the luscious, ashy liquid on my tongue, feel the first few sips calming my nerves.  Before a big night out, I’d get so excited at the thought of giving in as my ‘fun tonic’ cancelled out my inhibitions one by one and I became smarter, prettier, more hilarious and had another, and another.

Who knows how anyone reaches the turning point that leads them to something as momentous as giving up drinking. I’d read the statistics: 44 per cent of women drink four or more units while socialising.  What the papers coined ‘Binge Britain’ was just another a night out for almost half the female population, myself included.  I’d heard the scare stories such as the case of Emily Pycroft, the high-flying publicist who died suddenly last summer at only 33, her body racked with a liver disease she didn’t know she had. I’d seen the dire health statements that alcohol related deaths in women aged 35-54 doubled between 1991 and 2006 and the apocalyptic medical prediction that within ten years, alcohol related liver disease would kill more women than breast cancer. I’m ashamed to say most of it washed over me in a ‘Well, it’s not like I’ve ever ended up in A&E,’ kind of way.

There were the increasingly bad hangovers too.  In my 20s I could drink, smoke, stay out all night and still bash out 1000 words before midday.  In my late thirties, the horror lasted two, sometimes three days, my sore head eating into valuable work time, while my face ate into about 10,000 calories of chips, bacon and other sources or pure grease (another thing anyone I know will tell you – hangover calories don’t count).  But I’d be lying if I didn’t  admit that we wore our hangovers like a throbbing badge of honour, bonding over morning after emails pinged between offenders of the ‘I feel so awful, but wasn’t it fun,’ variety.

But after a Friday night dinner at a food editor friend’s where the incredible cuisine, conversation, champagne, wine, port and more wine flowed I found myself asking the cabbie the time on the way home.  ‘It’s 4.30 madam,’ he replied. There I was a supposedly smart, successful woman with a mortgage and a husband, getting home at dawn – drunk.  The next morning, literally paralysed in bed as my liver cried out for mercy, unable lift my head, let alone speak.

‘After spotting me clutching my wine glass while watering the garden last summer, my husband began to call me ‘Joanie’ followed by a little hiccup, after a boozing Joan Crawford’

I lay there, staring at the ceiling thinking about my drinking past and it hit me. When drunk I behave like an uncontrollable teen, which isn’t pretty when you’ve just hit 40.  I get so happy go lucky I end up taking unregistered mini-cabs home, shouting in clubs about the state of the economy, flirting with strange men so that post night out, my handbag was often full of cards from pimply insurance salesmen.   It would prompt my husband to eye-roll on cue, as if to ask ‘Oh what’s she done now?’  After spotting me clutching my wine glass while watering the garden last summer, he began to call me ‘Joanie’ followed by a little hiccup, after a boozing Joan Crawford.

So I decided to stop drinking for two months. But that’s different to actually stopping. Here’s what happened.

Week One : ON THE WAGON

In hangover agony.   Last night was my ‘farewell to drinking’ night out with girlfriends.  But it’s not just the hangover, it’s the bottomless pit that is my morning-after stomach.  I love healthy eating normally, but today nothing is going to stand in the way of me and rubbish food. I have had plastic cheetos, milky bars, a houmous wheaty wrap and a large bowl of sugary cereal with milk.  As a result I feel bloated, windy and about 100 years old.  Not to mention my fuzzy brain.  I am so ready to stop drinking.

Still, what I can’t deny is the fantastically hilarious night I had last night with old work girlfriends.  As usual we laughed so much that I actually woke up still giggling, two strange men’s cards in my handbag. I think one of them was an MP.

I know I need to do something – I have recurring eye infections and my skin is dry but pimply.  This is not the picture of myself I wanted to face  a month after my 40^th birthday!  I started this glass of red a night regime about nine months ago, after being stuck overnight at JFK airport on route home from Australia.    It was the first time I had actually sat somewhere – in this case the airline lounge – and drank alone.

Week Two: OFF THE WAGON

It’s midday on a Friday, less than a week after I committed to not drinking.  I am sitting here with a bleary head after falling off the wagon and having a large glass of Rioja last night.  It was just enough to calm me down and help me relax, which is probably a bit worrying. I was fine with the idea of not drinking all week and feeling great, doing yoga every morning.  Then last night I had a stressful day and found myself thinking ‘I could murder a drink tonight.’  It was like Pavlov’s dog, I could practically taste that red wine and feel it calming me down.  Double worrying.

I got to the pub to see friends I hadn’t seen all summer and they had my birthday gift there – super-posh champagne – that I now can’t drink for three months.  I had so much to talk to my Caroline, my favourite girlfriend ever, about it seemed sacrilegious not to be clutching a glass of fancy red and gesticulating like an idiot.  So I thought, ‘Oh F*&^ it.’

I was never a drinker until about ten years ago, when at 30 I moved to this side of the world from Australia.   It’s strange but the more successful I become, the older I get, the more compulsory it seems to power-drink with colleagues and friends.  Working in media, drinking is almost competitive and like Jack Donaghy, Alec Baldwin’s character says in 30 Rock ‘this is ‘business drunk’ it doesn’t count’.

Needless to say, after that one large glass last night I woke up with a fuzzy head, bad tummy, sneezing, with streamy eyes and a puffy face and a grumpy, tired mood. Didn’t do yoga and ate a rubbishy cheesy roll for breakfast.  Maybe it doesn’t exactly agree with me.  So why does it feel like such a good idea at the time?  It pains me to admit I can’t do this alone.

Week Three:  CRAVING

It’s funny that I am writing a piece today about an alcoholic who wouldn’t admit she was one until she ended up almost dead and forcefully admitted to the Priory by her doctor.   It’s ironic that I too am feeling an incredible need to drink.   Last night I literally could have murdered a glass of wine, just one glass was all I craved.  I’d had a busy, tiring week and a bad day, particularly clashing with someone who winds me up at work. I felt like grumpiness was literally infusing the blood in my veins and a large wine glass cum soup bowl of Chateneuf du Pape would be just the ticket.

Yesterday, David Smallwood, an addictions specialist at The Priory (for the non-Brits, this is like the Betty Ford of the UK) ran an ‘Alcohol Disorder Audit’ on me and gave me a score of 11 (and we’re not talking Spinal Tap here).  ‘Some people score over 40 but at Priory, anything over an eight, is classed as the beginning of problem drinking,’ he said.  According to Smallwood, alcoholics are made, not born and nobody starts off with the DTs and drinking two bottles of Scotch before lunch.  It was enough to scare the bejaysus out of me.

‘Many addicts will start with a pint a day, but tolerance increases over time and they may find themselves using more and more to get the same high,’ he explained.  The key warning sign is craving.  ‘If you feel you need something to alter how you are feeling, then you may need help.’  The litmus test for most people is a fortnight’s not drinking.  ‘If you think you have a problem with drinking, stop for two weeks.  ‘If you can’t do it, you probably do.’  Ouch.

Week Four:  HANGING ON

I am doing yoga classes most nights now to try and help this strange crankiness I feel at the end of the day when I can’t have my wine.  It helps the grumpiness evaporate, giving me the same sense of wellbeing and relaxation and completeness that that the glass of red brings me.

I spoke to GP Dr David Smart, at London’s Westover Clinic, who said most of his patients would be at pains to tell you what safe drinking limits were or how much in a unit of alcohol. For the record, anything over 14 units a week or 2-3 units a day is too much according to the government and anymore than four drinks a night is officially a binge.  It doesn’t help that a unit equates to about a thimbleful of wine (see drinkaware.com).  In fact, when it comes to the 12 per cent alcohol I used to drink, one small glass is equal to one and a half units.  That means my soup-bowl-sized Bordeaux glass was clocking about three units a night.

There are benefits to my new regime.  I have more energy, people keep saying how well I look and my eye infections have disappeared.  What I put down to hay fever could be an allergy to my favourite tipple.   According the Allergy UK, red wine is full ‘histamines’, a common allergen and many people react to it with streamy eyes, nasal congestion and even asthma after having as little as one glass.  This is not good news.

Week Five: HELP AT LAST

Last night I went to see Georgia Foster, the legendary hypnotherapist who specialises in problem social drinking.  Finally, feel like I have turned a corner.

‘Whether or not you realise it, you’re probably quite socially shy and this is why you drink the way you do,’ says Georgia.  ‘The alcohol helps you relax and feel more confident, you likes that feeling – who doesn’t? – and so it becomes easier to relax and drink too much’.

So, will not drinking will turn me into a socially anxious mess?  ‘Many people assume it’s the alcohol alone that calms them down, but that is learned behaviour,’ she explains.    ‘Just like you have learned that a glass of wine can calm you down and help you feel more socially confident, so too over time you can learn new techniques for feeling socially confident in situations such as parties.

Georgia hypnotised me, which was pretty innocuous, like a long rest, and sent me off with a 25-minute self-hypnosis MP3 recording that I was to listen to each night.  I left her feeling positive for the first time. It struck me that maybe, rather than losing the fun and laughter of drinking, I was gaining something, like more energy and no hangovers….

Week Six:  FEELING FANTASTIC

Since I started doing Georgia’s hypnotherapy CD, it’s actually become easy to ask for water – just pure, still water – instead of wine.  I have stopped whining about not drinking and have begun to focus on how clear my skin looks and how I can go out night after night as I have zero hangovers!  Last night at an awards do with my dad, I was calm and funny and all the things I expect alcohol makes me, but I was on water.

‘Okay, it wasn’t the hilarity, the sheer abandon of The Drunken Night Out, but in the morning there was no Horror Head either. Not a bad trade off’

But the best thing is my sleep.  I used to wake in the wee hours – usually around 4am – with a start, unable to get back to sleep.  Apparently, that’s the wine, says nutritionist Charlotte Watts. ‘If you’re drinking wine before bed, it could be relaxing you initially, but it will stimulate you later,’ says Watts.  ‘Alcohol spikes blood sugar, causing it to drop dramatically a few hours later.  When blood sugar drops, the adrenal glands quickly release a shot of adrenalin to raise blood sugar and provide energy, thus waking you with a jolt.’

I must admit I am steering clear of big nights out drinking with girlfriends, happier to go out in small groups for early dinners. You might call that cowardly, but I call it realistic.  I don’t want to be in a position that would make me fall off the wagon – yet again!

Last night we went to Claridges for a belated birthday celebration and everyone was saying ‘Oh come on, it’s your birthday, have some Champagne.’ In hindsight, I can’t believe it, but I was just not interested.  But I had a nice time and still felt my usual excitement at being somewhere so fancy.   Okay, it wasn’t the hilarity, the sheer abandon of The Drunken Night Out, but in the morning there was no Horror Head either. Not a bad trade off.

Week Seven:  HEALTHIER, OFFICIALLY

Has any of this made a difference to my bottom line health?  I decided to ask my liver, literally with the Fibroscan, a new painless, non-invasive test that uses ultrasound technology to examine the functioning of the liver.  ‘The only thing bad about having liver disease is not knowing you have it,’ says Professor Rajiv Jalan, consultant hepatologist at the London Clinic.  ‘The Fibroscan can determine any evidence of early liver injury in a similar way that mammograms can with breast cancer or an ECG does for the heart.  It can show us whether we need to do further investigations.’  According to Professor Jalan anyone who has been drinking 14 units or more a week regularly for over six months should be tested.   Here’s the great news: the liver is the one organ in the body capable of regenerating itself quickly. My results proved this.  I scored 3.9 in my Fibroscan and according to Professor Jalan, ‘That’s a very, very healthy liver.’   Anything over seven is cause for further testing.

Week Eight:  THE VERDICT

Tonight is the last day of my eight week detox.  I have a girlfriend coming over for a curry and I am stil in two minds as to whether I want to have a drink.  I don’t know if it’s the hypnotherapy or just breaking the habit, but the thought of having a drink is kind of ‘take it or leave it’ for me. I am dying to see my friend Zeena and scream and laugh but I’m just not interested in getting drunk.  If I am honest, I will probably offer her a glass of wine and have one if she does, but if she doesn’t I’ll have my usual water.  I have learned that my drinking isn’t exactly healthy so I’ll be thinking twice before having more than a glass in future.  I still don’t know what will happen on November 12^th and 19^th, both nights out I have planned with my girlfriends.  All I know is that my need to drink has gone and been replaced with a boost in confidence that I can live life – and really enjoy it – without alcohol.  That’s the best feeling in the world.

WHAT WORKED FOR ME

Hypnotherapy -  Seeing Georgia Foster, a hypnotherapist specialising in problem social drinking was my turning point.  I listened to her self-hypnosis MP3 every night and suddenly saying no to a drink without feeling deprived finally got easier.  (georgiafoster.com).

White lies – You need little excuse for a drink these days, but say no to a tipple and everyone expects a good reason.  So I made them up – ‘I’m on antibiotics’ and ‘I’m driving,’ were pretty hard to argue with.

Swapsies -  I replaced my nightly wine ritual with a yoga class at London’s Triyoga in Soho. It gave me the same sense of wellbeing without the disturbed sleep or sore head.

WHAT DIDN’T

Scare stories – However many scare stories or apocalyptic medical reports I read, I couldn’t help thinking ‘That’s not me, I drink Chateneuf Du Pape.’  How deluded.

Cold turkey – What scared me was that the minute I was faced with the option to have a drink, I took it.  Just stopping takes a better woman than me and I knew I needed professional help if I was to succeed.

Not drinking announcements – Telling people I had stopped drinking for two months didn’t seem like a valid enough excuse and it was constantly met with ‘Oh go on, you can have one, we won’t tell.’

A Fibroscan liver function test plus specialist consultation costs £305.  Call The London Clinic Liver Centre on 0207 616 7719 or log on to thelondonclinic.co.uk

Seaweed: could you? should you?

I’ve often read about the incredibly high nutritional content of sea vegetables with their odd-sounding names and mossy, boatshed smells.  Nice in theory.  Sea vegetables are the most nutritious and mineral-rich food on the planet apparently, with the ability to help the body detoxify heavy metals from the environment and regulate the thyroid because of their high iodine content.  But I tried wakame once and it made my soup taste like the beach and so gave up.  Up to now they were a healthy step too far.

But thanks to Angela Agnati-Prange (the macro-chef extraordinaire who has cooked for Rachel Weisz – I didn’t even know she was macro – and Madonna who everyone knows is a macrobiotic maniac) at last weeks’ retreat I’ve learned how to cook these nutritional lottery winners so they actually taste rather good!   They’re not hard to cook and they somehow help you feel more satisfied after eating.  It’s quite remarkable and an effect I think worth a tryst with their slight sliminess.

Here’s a crash course to using these magic foods:

Agar-Agar a tasteless gelatin replacement which can be cooked to high temperatures in jelly, mousses and quiches in the same way as jelly.

Hijiki is among the most mineral-rich of plants, containing fourteen times as much calcium as cow’s milk.  Along with its cousin Arame it should be soaked in warm water for 15 or so minutes after which it doubles in size.  Then you can dress it in a few drops sesame oil, fresh lime, chopped fresh corainder, some Japanese rice vinegar, a teaspoon grated fresh ginger juice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds if you fancy.  This sea salad keeps in the fridge for days is a great vitamin-rich side dish.  Tonight I made this and had it with Soba (brown rice noodles, which cook in six minutes), some cubed firm tofu and a light peanut butter and orange juice sauce.  Faster than most TV dinners and guilt-free.

 

 

 

Arame summer salad

Nori I love this stuff!  Macrobiotic maestros recommend toasting the sheets over a hot flame.  This is the stuff sushi rolls are wrapped in but toasted it’s far tastier, crispier and less chewy.  You take a dark green sheet and toast it and after a few seconds the colour lightens and the sheet hardens and it’s done.  Then crush and sprinkle it over salads or stir-fries or crush it into larger flakes and munch on it like you would crisps.  Sounds strange but it’s delicious.   In a marmite-love-it-or-hate-it kind of way.  Honest.

Wakame Soak it for about ten minutes and then slice and add to soups like miso and stews.  Don’t use too much, this one can tip the fishy scale if it’s over-used.

If you’re looking for a good brand, I would recommend Clearspring who make all the varieties and they’re organic so you can be assured harvesting and production methods are fish-friendly.

 

 

 

 

 

They’re all available from any health food store

Don’t be scared, enjoy!