Nine Rules for Adding 11 Years to Your Life
President Jimmy Carter called the top hundred health professionals to spend a couple of weeks together at the Carter Centre in Georgia, to discuss ways to improve the health of the average American. At the end they came up with some simple rules that could add an average of eleven years to the life-span of Americans. Here they are:
Nine Rules for Adding 11 Years to Your Life
1.Do not smoke.
2.Maintain recommended body weight.
3.Exercise regularly.
4.Minimise consumption of foods high in cholesterol and saturated fats, sugar and salt.
5.Do not drink alcohol excessively, and never drive when drinking.
6.Fasten seat belts every time you drive or ride in a car.
7.Remove handguns from the home.
8.Have regular checkups, including blood pressure tests.
9.If symptoms of depression or unhappiness persist, seek treatment.
These rules are so simple you may wonder why we bother to repeat them. But we all have a tendency to be like Naaman in the Old Testament, whose story is worth telling.
Naaman was a favourite general of a powerful Syrian king, yet he suffered as a leper. A little girl captive told of a prophet of God in Israel who could perform miraculous cures, so the king sent much silver and gold to the king of Israel, demanding that Naaman be healed. The Israeli king was distressed, assuming that this was a pretext for an armed invasion of his country, but the prophet Elisha saved the day. Refusing any payment, he sent a message that the leprous general should wash seven times in the river Jordan.
Naaman was furious at the simple prescription, and went away saying he had expected a dramatic personal ceremony. “Are not the rivers of Syria better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” he asked in a rage. But his servants said to him, “Had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.” (2 King 5:1-15)
From Everything to Gain, Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life. 1987
By Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter p 62-63