Under the microscope
ACTRESS Dame Maureen Lipman, 76, answers our health quiz
CAN YOU RUN UP STAIRS?
YES. I ran up the steps in Kensington Park Gardens recently but I felt it. I was out of breath. I also had pain in my left hip from bursitis.
EVER DIETED?
I’M 5 ft 6 in and people think of me as slender but that’s because I’ve got a thin head. I was recently told I ought to lose a little weight, to reduce my slightly raised cholesterol levels. During the pandemic, I walked miles then I’d come home and eat like a hog.
ANY VICES?
I’VE got a sweet tooth — and now I can eat chocolate after 40 years of avoiding it because of migraines. I went to an acupuncturist last year and the migraines disappeared.
DO YOU POP ANY PILLS?
THYROXINE because I’ve developed low thyroid levels. And amlodipine to regulate my raised blood pressure.
ANY FAMILY AILMENTS?
I’VE inherited a certain neurosis from my mother and what I’d call a forgetful gene from my father. Shortly after marrying my mother, he walked out of a film they were watching and went to play snooker. Later that evening, he forgot he was married and went home to his mother.
TRIED ALTERNATIVE REMEDIES?
CONSTANTLY. I’m a great fan of homeopathy. I’m currently using CBD oil to help me sleep and I spray my pillows with lavender.
COPE WITH PAIN?
WHEN I had migraines, I took Solpadeine. I once had a Bulgarian cleaner who’d make me put a slice of potato on my forehead under a wet flannel and get me to lie down. It didn’t make a blind bit of difference.
EVER HAD PLASTIC SURGERY?
NO, BUT I might have the bags under my eyes tidied up. I sometimes watch myself under the harsh lighting of Coronation Street and I can get a bit neurotic about how I look.
EVER HAD ANYTHING REMOVED?
I HAD two Caesareans for my son and daughter, a hysterectomy and the removal of a neurofibroma (a benign tumour at the top of my spine). Oh, and my tonsils as a child.
WHAT KEEPS YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT?
I CAN wake at 2am and not get back to sleep until 6am. Perhaps my upcoming play, Rose, will exhaust me sufficiently to sleep through.
HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC AFFECTED YOU?
I FOUND the release from ambition very soothing.
ANY PHOBIAS?
SPIDERS and snakes. I’m also not keen on crows and magpies.
LIKE TO LIVE FOR EVER?
NO. THE most interesting person I ever met was the photographer Elsbeth Juda, who lived to 103. I’d like to go like she did, having a foot massage and listening to Schubert. n Maureen stars in rose at the Hope Mill Theatre in Salford from august 30 to September 11 and the Park Theatre, north London, from September 13 to October 15.