The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-26

HHI0CdO be 70 years young Is some- times far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old, Oliver Wendell Holmes. Fat and 40," is the condition and age in life most dreaded by women; while most men by the time they reach chasing dollars. or fame. that they do not care whether they are fat or 40. man should not be fat at 40 unless 1t is a family characteristic and even then there is often no excuse for corpu- lence; but he should have the hand some, athletic. symmetrical figure that ought to be developed with full ma turity.
 We see but a few fat people who live to a ripe old age Life insurance companies have learned from sad expert ence that the man who is overweight dies before his age of expectancy." If one is fat after 40 and desires long life he should begin to diet to reduce his weight to normal. We often hear "stout" people say that they cannot understand why they are fat when they "eat so lit-
 
 because if one watches a stout person eat for sometime. he sees that most of the fat comes from overeatng, and can therefore be remedied by regulating the diet.
 At 40 one should be at the height of ef- ffciency, and every day he should enjoy the fullness of life. The curve of ef- if har in, the man or woman who has lived hygienic life should go gradually up- ward to 40. It then should remain about on the same level until the age 70 or 80 Is reached, when 1t should go gradually downward until 90 to 100 years brings the close of a useful and happy life.
 The fact that most men and women that they have not learned the art of living; or that they have been grossly careless in personal hygiene. The fact that at 50 most men and women are old and that "three score years and ten" is ordinarily considered the limit of life does not mean that they cannot live many years longer It merely means that men and women are ignorant or careless in their habits of living and that they die many years before they Ashould
 Sir John Hunter is credited with say Bng that "a man is as old as his arte- rfes,' and he is right. Physicians meas ure the age of arteries by taking blood pressure. The average normal blood pressure at 20 years old is about 12O and as the arteries grow older the blood pressure goes up. Some one has made 8 rule to estimate the normal blood pressure by adding 10 to 100 for eacs decade of life, thus at 40 years the blood pressure should be 40, and 19O at 9U years of age. This rule. however, will not always york; because many men at O. who are well preserved. have blood pressure of 120 to 130. and we sometimes see men of 40 with blood pressure of 1S0, which may indicate that his arteries are 80 years old, even though he has lived only half that long.
 Metchnikoff, the great Russian scien- tist, who, in his later years. was con- nected with the Pasteur institute in Paris, made the statement in his book "The Prolongation of Life" that man should live to be 200 years old. and that he should be active and efficient until he is 15o. He said that the reason that men die so early is because they absorb from the intestinal tract toxins (poisons) which circulate in tie blood and cause degeneration fhardening) of the arteries. the condition known as old age
 Metchnikoff asserted that the toxins which cause old age come from the putrefaction of proteins (meats, eggs, fish, etc) in the intestinal tract. This view is generally accepted by physicians as one of the causes of arterio- sclerosis; but there are many other causes among which snay be mentioned overwork and worry, various diseases, of which syphilis is one of the most freauent: and recently it has been proved that focal infections such as absesses at the roots of teeth. infected tonsils or gall bladders, or appendices. or infec- ton in any part of the body, may gen crate toxins which, when circulating in the blood, cause the degeneration of the | arteries and therefore old age There is no question, however. that overeating. | particularly of meats is one of the greatest causes of premature scnility end death.
 Most people look upon old age with thread because of it's supposed infirmities Ard suffering but for the man or won- | arN who has been temperate in eating and drinking, and who has lived ration | ally, it Is the happiest period of life | The writer has known number of very old people who beamed with the joy of | living. Among them was an old lady III | years old, and. though she had always been poor, even at that age, she seemed l to enjoy living. As an evidence of her | cheerful viewpoint of life her replies | to questions propounded to her by the | writer are submitted She was asked how old she was; she replied, T can not tell you because I might want to |