Take 10~ Ten Dynamic Golden Rules That Help You LIve Longer, Feel Better, and Look Good.....series introduction part 1

Once again I have found a great book. One that I think many of you would benefit from so I have decided to do a series on this book. There is quite a bit of information in this book and I am hoping that it will be something that will help each and every one of us along this journey called life.

This week we will be looking at the Introduction to the book. I will be dividing it into two parts since it is so long. I have not decided for sure how I will do the chapters - I might divide them into to parts as well since they are lengthy as well.

 

Take 10~

Ten Dynamic Golden Rules That Help You

 Live Longer, Feel Better, and Look Good

by Leo R. Van Dolson, Ph.D, M.P.H.

 

 

 

How would you like to live longer, feel great, and look good? What's exciting is that you can-- you really can! It's not all that difficult either. All you have to do is to become acquainted with and put into practice the ten simple dynamic golden rules that we share with you in this book. Many of them you probably are aware of and practicing already, even if it's only to a limited extent. But if you're not following them, stop cheating yourself and begin to get the most out of life.

 

Not long ago the chemicals in the human body were estimated to have a total value of about 98 cents. Thanks to inflation, the same chemicals would sell now for about $10.00. Harold Morowitz, a professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, calculated some years ago what the value of the human body would be if constructed from supplies bought in the open market at that time. He came up with the astounding figure of $6,000,015.44 for a medium size human body. What made the difference? He included a number of exotic substances not included in the earlier estimates. One if bradykinin that sells for $12,000 a gram and a follicle-stimulating hormone that retails at $4.8 million on the open market. (See Eternity, Oct., 1980. p.19.) Would you like to be a multi-millionaire? You already are!

 

Our bodies are worth a lot more than we may have thought. The challenge is to get our body's worth-- to begin to appreciate and care for these wonderful and expensive bodies as something very precious.

One way to do this would be to make a heroic effort to learn all possible health rules. But there are so many health choices today that we are perplexed by constantly changing advice as scientist learn more about what's good for us. The easier way is to learn the basic principles that govern life and health and to use common sense in applying them as best we can to various circumstances. This book develops ten golden rules of life and health that are easy to remember and apply.

 

We live in an age when it is unpopular to discuss rules and standards. Somehow people think these rules inhibit their freedom rather than protect it. But there are rules to every game. There has to be, or we wouldn't have games! And there are rules --great principles designed for our good--in winning the game of life. There is but one purpose behind them all, that is to enable us, when we play the game straight, to achieve the highest development of our physical, mental, social, and spiritual potential. Yet too often we see these as rather senseless and arbitrary rules which are challenging to break. And if that's all there is to them it would be a rather exciting game to try to break them and see how much we could get by with. But the trouble with that philosophy is that it isn't just rules that we break, it's ourselves. And often we don't realize this until it's too late.

 

Consider the terrible cost involved in failing to pay attention to these golden rules. Some years ago I was shocked to lean of the unexpected death of a friend who had been my major professor during my doctoral studies. My dissertation was based on research in the field of health education. One area of particular interest was the field of motivation. This professor challenged me to develop a conceptual model that would help predict health-behavior change. We chose smoking cessation to illustrate the model. Although a chain smoker himself, the professor was keenly interested in this project. He made several suggestions that greatly strengthened the model. His enthusiasm emboldened me to ask him why it was that, while he seemed to understand so clearly the reason for stopping smoking, he continued to puff away on cigarettes.

 

"Oh, I enjoy smoking," he said.
I know it doesn't do me any good' in fact, it's detrimental to my health. But I really enjoy smoking and don't want to quit." That was the first of several conversations during which we earnestly discussed his smoking habit. Two years later I learned that he had died at the young age of 45 from lung cancer. What a terrible price to pay for clinging to a death- dealing habit just because he enjoyed

it!

 

Health-destroying habits often seem enjoyable. We wouldn't be doing what we're doing unless we were getting some sort of satisfaction out of them. But who is being hurt? Mainly ourselves. A golden rule of life is not one that we can keep on breaking with impunity. The day of reckoning will come-- and along with it the realization that the person we've cheated the most is self.

 

But that's the negative side. Look at the bright promise on the other side. The rules for healthful living, when followed consistently, pay rich dividends indeed. Do you want to be able to d whatever you've chosen to do in life consistently well and with real efficiency? Do you desire greater strength and energy? Do you want to be happy and cheerful? Who wouldn't?

 

It is possible to be as vital and alive at 61 as at 16. We can enjoy each day to its fullest. We can arise each morning with renewed vigor and strength, bubbling over with enthusiasm and energy. This n not accomplished by he use of some magic potion, elixir, or will-of-the-wisp fountain of youth, but by carefully applying the simple basic principles that govern life and heath. Together we'll discover ten of them. Each discovery will become a magic key that will open a treasure chest full of the riches of life and enable us to get along better and enjoy life much more.

 

It's easy to settle quickly for less than the best in life. As long as we seem to get along all right we can't be bothered about the fact that we're missing so much that is available. Most of us expend more time and strength n taking care of our houses and cars than we do taking care of ourselves. If a few dollars can be saved by poring over a "do-it-yourself" manual for repairing our house or fixing our car we put a lot of time into it. But how much more worth while it is to spend our time to learn how to get more out of life itself.

 

The golden rules we are studying are not just simple mechanical rules like breathing deeply and getting enough rest--important as these are. They are broader principles that include the physical, mental, social and spiritual dimensions of life.

Living Longer

 Dr. Lester Breslow, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California at Los Angeles at the time when he and those researchers working with him began a study of 7,000 adult residents of Alameda County, California in 1965. Their studies led to the conclusion that good health practices, rather than the initial health status of those they surveyed, were largely responsible for the fact that those who practiced good health habits lived significantly longer. The seven good health habits they discovered that made the difference were: never smoking, regular physical activity, moderate to no use of alcohol, 7-8 hours of sleep regularly, maintaining proper weight, eating breakfast, and not eating between meals. (See Lester Breslow and James E. Enstrom, "Persistence of Health Habits and Their Relationship to Mortality." Preventive Medicine, 9:469-483(1980).

 

At Loma Linda University School of Health Update Convention in March, 1981, Dr. Breslow presented a report on the then current status of the Alameda County studies. He learned that at every age level, from 20 to 70, those who followed all seven of the health habits had significantly longer life than did those who followed only six of them. Six were better than five, and so on down to zero. This was particularly true for males. Men who were 60 years of age and older and had followed all seven health practices had better health status than men of 30 who followed none to three of the health practices. Dr. Breslow stated that he did not believe his results at first, so he rechecked them until he was convinced that they were accurate. Mortality follow-up of the 7,000 people in the study showed that for males at age 45 who practiced none to three of these good health habits, life expectancy would be another 21.6 years. Men at age 45 who followed four or five of the good health practices could anticipate living 28 more years. But those who followed six to seven of the good health practices could expect to live another 33 years.

 

Dr. Breslow is not  just concerned about longevity. He's plugging for what he calls "optimal health"-- a healthy, happy way of life. One of the most interesting results of the Breslow studies is the demonstration that we need the entire health package, not just bits and pieces of it, if we are to enjoy total health. These multi-million dollar body machines of ours deserve to be treated with the greatest respect possible.

 

Modern researchers have come to understand that disease is not just one-dimensional. Most of us know that the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of life are so interrelated that what affects one part of us affects every other part. With this fact in mind, health scientist have become increasingly aware of the need to treat health problems through a wholistic approach rather than through a fragmented one. How we live-- including what we eat, how and where we work, what we wear, and many other large and small details of our daily lives-- is most important in keeping truly healthy.

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