FIT AND EIGHTY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 3 February 1934, Page 23 (Supplement)

FIT AND EIGHTY.

More Men Rust Out Than Wear Out. MARRIED FORK LIVE LONGEST. (By A HEALTH SPECIALIST.) JT is a strange and as yet unexplained fact that marriage tends jto prolong the average life. Statistics prove this conclusively. Bachelors die younger than married men. But this is, perhaps, largely because wives make men look after themselves and live more regular lives. Also, the average man, as he gets on in years, tends to lose his grip on life if he is not kept interested either by a beloved wife, or his children. Doctors know that a bachelor of sixty who is ill is far more likely to succumb than a happily married man of the same age suffering from a similar complaint. This is because the latter has a greater incentive to live. The grip on life counts, after middle-age, almost more than a naturally strong constitution. Doctors continually come upon cases of death rapidly ensuing on the weakening of the will to live, after a beloved mate, or constant companion, has passed away. But, fundamentally, neither marriage nor single-blessedness affects the life span. What really matters is diet, exercise, sleep and regularity. One almost always finds that men who retain their faculties to very old age have been very active. Judges are notoriously long-lived. As barristers they had to live most strenuous lives, but they have been able to recoup their physical powers during very long vacations. More men rust out than wear out. The other day, at an inquest on an agricultural labourer, a doctor stated that the man’s brain had become atrophied through disuse. This process can be applied to the entire human system. Activity, not necessarily of a strenuous character, but sufficiently energetic and prolonged to key a man up. develops his vitality, tones up his whole s\ stem, and enables him to get the most out of his rest periods. Diet faddists are short-lived, but the man who carefully selects the best and most nourishing food adds years to his life. Nourishing food is simple—and most of it is cheap. Trappers in the Far North can keep at full physical stretch for months on bacon and beans and coffee. Exercise is necessary in order to keep the stomach in order, and so reduce self-poisoning to a minimum. If you are too fat or too busy or too weak to exercise hard, go in for massage. Massage yourself. Exercise taken regularly, an hour a day, is a youth preserver for women as well as a life-pro-longer for men.

Never take a nap after dinner or lunch. Never eat heavily— eat little and often. Don't lie in bed in the morning after waking up. If you've got to cat in a hurry, don’t cat. These few donts are a better elixir of life than any monkey gland!