MAXIMS FOR LONG LIFE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 November 1924, Page 12

MAXIMS FOR LONG LIFE.

HABITS FORMED IN EARLY LIFE. I have examined, thousands of men with the one object in view, of enabling them to live longer, says Dt G. L. Maylan, professor of physical edu-. cation of Columbia University, in the American Magazine. I never yet have encountered a man whose hadits of living w r ere so perfect that he could not improve them ? and thus add years to his term of existence. The first 20 years of a man’s life have a tremendous bearing on -the length of it; for during that time habits of living and exercise are formed, and it is hard to change them after majority. Luckily for most of us, > children naturally have good habits. It is as natural for them to romp, run, and play games as it is to breathe. They do not, as a rule, over-eat, except sweets. They sleep deeply and restfully. . It is between the ages of 20 and 22 —after the individual has come into full control of himself, as' it were — that he determines to a large extent the length of his life. If he reaches °0 with sound health it is chiefly “upt.o him’’ whether he lives to be 80. or whether he shuffles off at 60 or earlier. The rules to be followed are simplicity itself; the difficulty lies in following them without exception. To be wholly effective they must become habits. Eeat enough—but not too much. Play enough—but not too much. Sleep enough. Work as hard as you please. Don’t work when you should be sleeping, playing, or eating. Don’t worry.

The strong, healthy, man who has hardly known an ache or pain all his life can, as he-says proudly, eat tacks and digest them. He tries to outwalk, outrun, outlift, and outlast everyone else, because he is proud of his strength and likes to show it. When he takes cold he sniffs and says it doesn’t amount to anything. A few lurking pneumonia germs find lodgment in the inflamed membranes in his throat and begin to spread. Within a few days he has a temperature of 103 or 104, and he goes to the office just the same, saying that he isn’t going to let a little thing like a cold knock him out. Within 24 or 48 hours the poison floods his overworked heart —and it is curtain

and flowers for him. This does not mean that you should always be thinking about vour health. That is the most dangerous kind of worry. You should find what you can do and what you can’t; what food agrees with you and what food doesn’t. Having once intelligently laid out your ooirsn of living, stick to it. and don’t keep fussing about your health.