An Academy Award-nominated actor who starred in two X-Men movies has a long-term chronic condition that, without treatment, can cause blindness, due to not making his health a priority.
Can you believe it’s almost been a decade since X-Men: Apocalypse, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, and James McAvoy, premiered on the big screen?
The 2016 flick and its follow-up, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, make up the third and fourth instalment of the franchise’s prequel films, focusing on younger versions of Professor X’s gang of crime-fighting students, like Storm and Cyclops, and their enemy counterparts, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
One person who starred in both Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix is an Australian actor whose other film credits include Angelina Jolie’s Maria, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and The Power of the Dog.
For the latter, the 28-year-old earned himself a Golden Globe and a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 94th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
The star, whose name is Kodi Smit-McPhee, portrayed Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in the X-Men franchise, a mutant who possesses superhuman agility and can teleport from place-to-place.
As well as appearing as the Marvel Comics character in both Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, he made a very quick cameo in Deadpool 2.
Now, he has firmly shed his blue suit and is gearing up to make his professional stage debut in London.
Acting alongside Cate Blanchett and Emma Corrin in an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, Smit-McPhee will portray Konstantin Treplev, a young creative who abhors the current state of Russian theatre.
Kodi Smit-McPhee portrayed Nightcrawler in the X-Men movies (20th Century Studios)
Ahead of the tragicomedy’s opening night (March 6) and subsequent six-week run at the Barbican Theatre, Smit-McPhee revealed he was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) after putting off a meeting with his doctor.
AS is a long-term condition that causes the spine and other areas of the body to become inflamed, as per the NHS.
Symptoms of the rheumatism include pain and swelling and extreme tiredness, which can develop gradually over time.
If left untreated, AS can manifest in blindness – a reality Smit-McPhee knows all too well.
In a new interview, the actor claims ‘suppressed trauma’ from his childhood and the ‘stress’ of being a child actor is what brought on his AS.
“Ironically, I was playing a superhero in X-Men, and then I was doing these other action films like Alpha. And I went through very tough times on those jobs,” he told The Times.
After developing a cataract in his left eye, the Aussie admitted he didn’t ‘follow up’ on it.
The Power of the Dog actor ‘can’t see anything’ in one eye (Netflix)
“You know, I was thinking too much and I couldn’t get back to the doctor. Eventually the cataract had done so much damage. It was in atrophy. So in that eye I can’t see anything,” he said.
Previously, Smit-McPhee admitted that he managed his ill-health – which has plagued him since he was just 18 years old – by ‘smoking and driving [his] car faster’ but now uses anti-inflammatory medicine, abstains from social media, and practices Taoism, a Chinese philosophy that emphasizes harmony with the universe.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for AS. However, medical experts claim exercise, physiotherapy and medicines that reduce inflammation may help delay its progression.
For more information on living with AS, you can head to the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society (NASS) website.
Woman left ‘almost completely blind’ in one eye after making common contact lens mistake
Maureen Cronin ended up being hospitalized and is now losing her vision in one eye
A woman made an easy mistake with her contact lenses and is losing her eyesight as a result.
Millions of people across the globe are contact lens-wearers, and there’s a good chance at once they’ve done what Maureen Cronin did, that ended up with her being diagnosed with a rare infection.
Tragedy struck for Maureen in August last year as she was hospitalized at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York, US.
The 53-year-old ended up needing a cornea transplant in September 2024, but her eye rejected the transplant.
New Yorker Maureen Cronin has worn contact lenses for almost 20 years (Kennedy News and Media)
Maureen claims the steroid drops prescribed to help the pain have caused her to develop glaucoma. As a result, she’s now almost completely blind in her right eye and is waiting to undergo another cornea transplant to hopefully restore some of her sight.
As to what caused the infection, it all comes down to Maureen wearing her lenses in a swimming pool.
The 53-year-old has almost lost all of her vision in her right eye (Kennedy News and Media)
Maureen began offering swimming lessons to young children in their private backyard pools in June last year, but after teaching seven children while wearing her contact lenses in the water, she claims that her right eye started to irritate her.
Maureen, who has worn contact lenses for almost 20 years, said it felt like she had a grain of sand stuck in her eye and when the pain became ‘excruciating’ she visited an eye doctor who prescribed her eye drops.
The eye drops didn’t help, however, and eventually she was diagnosed with acanthamoeba keratitis (AK). According to Cleveland Clinic, AK is ‘a rare parasitic eye infection from a certain type of amoeba’.
It goes on: “It affects the cornea, the clear, dome-shaped front covering of your eye. When not treated, it can damage your eyes and cause loss of sight.”
She began teaching kids how to swim last year (Kennedy News and Media)
Maureen has now been raising awareness about her AK diagnosis in a bid to warn others about wearing contact lenses around water to stop this from happening to them.
“I am hopeful but fearful at the same time [about the next cornea transplant]. I’m afraid it won’t take. It feels like it’s never ending and I’m nervous,” she said.
“AK is not well known and it is often misdiagnosed. I would say anyone who wears contact lenses shouldn’t wear them near any body of water.”
Maureen’s eye ended up clouding over (Kennedy News and Media)
Maureen admitted: “I now have a fear of being near any kind of water. I shower with my goggles on.
“My eye is cloudy because of the cataract and the pupil is large. It’s off putting because the pupil is so big and it looks cloudy.”
She went on: “If you treat it early, you can kill the parasite and you don’t have to go through the hospital and surgery process.
“I was not aware at all, I was never told by my optician to never wear them in water.”
A man who completed 500 push-ups in an hour has revealed the impact it’s had on his body, and it’s pretty impressive to say the least.
Completing gruelling fitness challenges and pushing your body to its limits is what some gym rats live for.
For some, they’re driven to wake up at 5.00am every day so they can train hard to hit that elusive sub-hour Hyrox time.
Others just want to continue their daily running streak or sculpt their body to mimic that of Hercules.
A YouTuber showed pictures before and after a 500 push-up challenge (YouTube/JacksonHunter91)
Whether your goals are small or larger-than-life, they’re definitely (probably) achievable with the right amount of grit, determination and discipline.
A couple of years ago, one YouTuber showed off his version of athletic prowess by completing a staggering 500 push-ups in an hour.
Now that’s no mean feat, and we can bet he trained for some time to achieve it.
But what’s even more amazing is the fact his body looked completely different before and after the workout.
In 2023, Jackson Hunter, who boasts 8,450 YouTube subscribers, uploaded a nine-second clip to the video-sharing platform titled 500 PUSH-UPS in 1 Hour | Before vs. After.
In the opening seconds of the video, Hunter posed, signalling that this was what he looked like before getting a serious sweat on.
The clip then cut to a sped-up video of him completing the gruelling 500 push-up workout on what appeared to be a kitchen floor.
Then, another picture of Hunter was posted—this time after completing the workout.
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Social media users were quick to comment on the man’s appearance (YouTube/JacksonHunter91)
The after image saw the YouTuber looking much more broad, with both his arms and ab muscles looking much more defined.
Viewers were also quick to comment on Hunter’s progress photos, with one typing: “Dayum! Wish I could do that! You gonna be one of the greats.”
A second commented: “Ya thats what happens when you get a pump.”
“Supporting every effort get it going bro,” said someone else.
Hunter’s dramatic appearance change is what some gym-goers call a ‘pump’.
Legion Aesthetics says a ‘pump’ is when your muscles temporarily swell after completing an intense workout.
The condition is caused by increased blood flow to the muscles you are working, often as a response to metabolic byproducts like lactic acid being created.
This increased blood flow leads to what is known as vasodilation, which is a widening of the blood cells, writes the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Gym Gear claims this process causes your muscles to swell up and feel harder for a certain period of time, leading to the ‘pumped’ feeling.
So, that’s why Hunter’s substantial appearance change took place between the two photographs—he had an insane pump from completing the 500 push-up challenge.
Benefits of push-ups
If you too want to be swoll then incorporating push-ups into your fitness routine is an excellent way to do it.
Not only are you likely to experience a temporary muscle pump, but you’ll also build up your upper body strength, and also improve your body’s overall composition.
Healthline reports that adding strength exercises like push-ups to an aerobic exercise program can increase your metabolism, thus resulting in more calories burned and eventually fat loss.
