MAXIMS FOR LONG LIFE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4768, 24 October 1924, Page 1

MAXIMS FOR LONG LIFE.

BEARING OF EARLY HABITS. A FEW SIMPLE RULTS. 1 have examined thousands o£ men with the one object in view, of enabling them to live longer, says Dr. L. L. Maytan, professor of physical education at Columbia University, in the American Magazine, 1 never yet have encountered a man whose habits of living were so perfect that he could not improve them, and thus add years to hijs 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 rulp over-eat, except sweets. They pleep deeply and reslfully. It is between the ages of 20 and 22 —after the individual has come into full control o£ himself, as it were—that he determines to a large extent the length of his life. If he reaches 20 with sound health it is chiefly up to 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 liep in following them without exception, To be wholly effective they must become habits. Eat 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 elise, because he is proud o£ 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 And lodgment in the inflamed membranes in his throat and begin to spread. WitlLin a few days he has a temperature of 10’1 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 : s curtain and flowers for him. This does not mean that you should always be thinking about your healtn. 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 doesn t. Having once intelligently laid out your course of living, stick to it, and don’t keep fussing about your health.