12/07/2004

Nobody gonna live your life for you

Roch (actually, his dad) discovered this handy dandy life expectancy calculator. Try it! It's fun, and maybe it will give you good news like it gave me, at least 50 more years of blogging in this earthly realm.

The Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator© was designed to translate what we have learned from studies of centenarians and other longevity research into a practical and empowering tool for individuals to estimate their longevity potential.

From the "know thyself" category:

  • You are drinking too much coffee.
  • You need to floss your teeth.
  • You are doing much better than the average person in demonstrating restraint from desserts and candy bars.
  • Good for you. A diet that minimizes meat is healthier.

Other tidbits:

An unusual proportion of the female centenarians never married (about 15%). Perhaps personality features that lead to perseverance, independence, and assertiveness provide a survival advantage.

On the other hand, nearly 100% of the male centenarians are married or were only recently widowed.

Keeping gut transit time under 20 hours seems to decrease the incidence of colon cancer. (!!!)

Preserved and cured meats (bacon, sausage, lunch meats, etc.) are the largest source of nitrites in our diet, which lead to the formation of nitrosamines, probable carcinogens. (There goes breakfast - and lunch.)

Breast cancer is a commonly diagnosed cancer in women. A shocking one out of nine women will be diagnosed with this potentially lethal disease.

And finally...

In a study of over 100 centenarians, the Harvard based New England Centenarian Study found that 20% of the women had at least one of their children after the age of 40. Thus, a woman who has a child after the age of 40 (without fertility assistance) is about 5 times more likely to achieve exceptional old age.

[Scientific explanation follows, and then].. Thus, do not purposefully put off having a child until you are forty or older because you think it will help you live to 100.

BONUS: Ten points to anyone who can name the band whose lyric appears as the Title of this post. (And if you own this album, you are definitely on my Cool List.)


1 comment:

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