I saw this recently:

"Medical experts now estimate that 80 percent of diseases are directly linked to frantic living... Dr. Nedra Belloc studied the relationship between living patterns and life expectancy. She centered on these habits: --Three meals a day, avoiding snacks --Breakfact every day --Moderate exercise two or three times a week --Seven or eight hours of sleep at night --No smoking --Moderate weight --No alcohol, or only in moderation

Belloc found that a 45-year-old man with six or seven of these habits could expect to live eleven years longer than one with only two or three.** A study by Belloc and Dr. Lester Breslow indicated that a man who had six or seven of these habits was a healthy as a man thirty years younger who had only one or two. The significance of this finding jumps into focus when you consider that between 1900 and 1970, life expectancy for white forty-year-old men increased by only half a year, despite al medical advances of that period.** [**D.M. Vickery, Life Plan for Your Health, 1978]

To this I would add--regular dental care and checkups.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), February 13, 2002