The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-29
TO PROLONC LIFE
"A PHYSICIAN WRITES AN ARTi-
Gle ON LONGEVITY
To Eat Less, Live a Regular Life and
Take Exercise, Are Among the Rules
Laid Down by the Writer.


In one Of the magazines a promi-
nent New York doctor tells how one
may prolong his life beyond the portion
Of the ordinary man. 1t may be very
decidedly a question in the minds of
many whether or not they desire to
live to be one hundred years old or
more, but given man with all his
faculties and fair enjoyment of life,
he will undoubtedly want to put off the
inevitable as long as possible.
This physician has not only theories
on the subject, but has been able to
put them in practice among some pa
tients who were DESTROYS Of a long life.
He claims that one hundred and TWEEN
ty years is not an unreasonable span
for human life, and the man who dies
of old age at seventy has himself to
blame for it. He says the body itself
is the most wonderful mechanism and
a self-regulating one if left alone, but
unfortunately it has within it an inhab-
liant who too often insists upon feed
ing it when it is not hungry, working it
when it is tired or oiling it when it
needs a directly opposite treatment.
The body if left to itself makes its
and stores up fat to be used when oc-
casion requires. The mind inside, either
thinking it knows more than nature
or being perfectly Indifferent to re-
suits, will oVertax the body, use up the
vital energy and, worn out before his
time, the man dies at seventy or
eighty, whereas If he had lived nor
mally and slowly, might have been hale
and hearty at ninety-ive or a hum
bred. This writer does not seem to
think there are any hard and fast rules
in regard to diet which the old should
adopt and which will surely preserve
them to an unwonted age, for men
who have been smokers and those who
have not, others who were vegetarians,
and some who lived largely upon meat,
all at various times and in differing cir
cumstances and climes, have lived an
extraordinarily long time. SO that he
does not advocate one theory above
another. He merely pleads for 111oder-
alton and rational living.
On the whole the writer believes, in
regard to diet, that we have tenden-
cy to eat too much rather than too
little After hearty eating for a week
or two, the man will have sort of
reaction which he calls a bilious at
tack, and which is nothing in the world
but the body's protest against over
feeding and which might be entirely
avoided by eating less at all times.
Instead of this the man will stuff him.
self with pills and continue to over
eat. A good rule to make is to al
ways leave the table believing you
could have eaten a little more. The
feeling of fullness, of heayiness after
eating is sure sign that you have con-
sumed more than nature requires.
This writer says that if a man only
eats at a meal enough so that he will
be hungry for the next, he will be nor
NAL. To eat a tremendous breakfast,
for instance, is foolish, because one has
no appetite for the next meal. He
says he dwells long upon the subject of
eating as one of the most important in
considering age, because most men who
die before their allotted time have
brought on old age by their own in
diligence at the table.
Cleanliness and exercise, he says,
also regular habits, have everything
to do with longevity. A normal amount
of sleep is necessary, but in the health
full man this will regulate itself. The
writer says that it is best to get up at
the same time every morning no matter
what time you have retired, as sleep
lost should be made up at the begin
ming of the night, not at the end. 1t is
a good rule to go to bed when sleepy
Men who are of advanced age need but
little food, and not as much sleep, ac-
cording to many writer's, as those
young in years and in middle life. The
man who has lived regularly and alb
stemious1y without undue excess or ex-
element, has every reason to believe
he shall live to be ninety or hum
bred.