- Dress warmly, even when indoors. Eat enough food, and stay as active as possible.
- Because hypothermia may start even during sleep, keep warm in bed by wearing enough clothing and using blankets.
- If you take medicine to treat anxiety, depression, nervousness, or nausea, ask your doctor whether the medication might affect the control of body temperature.
- If you stay alone, especially in later years, ask friends or neighbors to look in on you once or twice a day, particularly during a cold spell. See if your community has a telephone check-in or personal visit service for the elderly or home-bound.
- Stay out of direct sunlight and avoid strenuous activity during heat spells. (Cells from sun-exposed skin divide fewer times in culture than unexposed cells, indicating a possible speeding up of the aging process by the sun's rays.
- Wear light-weight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing that permits sweat to evaporate.
- Drink plenty of liquids such as water, fruit and vegetable juice, and iced tea to replace the fluids lost by sweating. Try not to drink alcoholic beverages or fluids that have too much salt, since salt can complicate existing medical problems, such as high blood pressure. Use salt tablets only with your doctor's approval.
- Our Geographic Location
- The Temperature in our Home
- Our Safety Habits
- First, try to be relaxed and easy-going. Try to have fun in everything you do including work, and laugh a lot of conflicts off - then, never hold a grudge (forgive easily).
- Second, protect yourself as much as possible from the chemicals and pollutants of a large city.
- Third, and most important, get a lot of exercise and strenuous activity. Strenuous exercise plays a very large part in keeping the immune system strong to fight viruses, which are more abundant in larger populated areas.
- The Abkhasians in the Caucasus Mountains of Soviet Georgia.
- The Vilcabambans in the Ecuadorian Andes.
- The Hunzas in the Karakorum Mountains of Kashmir in West Pakistan’s Himalayas.
- Keep your driving speed within the posted limits.
- Obey all traffic laws; carefully avoid minor traffic violations.
- Don't sneak through yellow lights.
- Signal well in advance of turning.
- Maintain proper distance from the vehicle in front of you.
- Follow all speed control regulations.
Carl Bourhenne's Fitness and Long Life Manual |
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Youthful and Attractive |
Avoid overexposure to the sun and cold. The body's ability
to regulate and monitor its own temperature seems to decline with age, making the
elderly more vulnerable to heat and cold stress.
Hypothermia is a condition of below-normal body temperature - typically 95øF (35øC) or under, and can be fatal. Accidental hypothermia may occur in anyone who is exposed to severe cold without enough protection. However, some older people can develop accidental hypothermia after exposure to relatively mild cold. For unknown reasons, some older people do not feel cold and do not shiver. Thus, they cannot produce body heat by shivering when they need it. It is interesting to note that many people who have "felt cold" for years may actually have a lower risk of accidental hypothermia.
The only sure way to detect hypothermia is to use a special low-reading thermometer, available in most hospitals; but a regular thermometer will do if you shake it down well. If the temperature is below 95øF (35øC) or does not register, call for emergency medical help.
Other signs to look for include: An unusual change in appearance or behavior during cold weather; slow, and sometimes irregular heartbeat; slurred speech; shallow, very slow breathing; sluggishness and confusion. Treatment consists of re-warming the person under a doctor's supervision, preferably in a hospital.
Protective Measures Against Hypothermia:
In cold weather: There is no strong scientific basis for recommending specific room
temperatures. However, setting the heat at 65øF (18.3øC) in living
and sleeping areas should be adequate in most cases, although sick people may need
more heat.
Measures To Prevent Accidental Hypothermia Include:
Heat Effects And H eat-Related Illnesses: The major heat-related illnesses are Heat Stroke, and Heat Exhaustion.
Heat Stroke is a medical emergency requiring immediate attention and treatment by a doctor. Among the symptoms are faintness, dizziness, headache, nausea, loss of consciousness, body temperature of 104øF (40øC) or higher, measured rectally, rapid pulse, and flushed skin.
Heat Exhaustion takes longer to develop than other heat-related illnesses. It results from a loss of body water and salt. The symptoms include weakness, heavy sweating, nausea, and giddiness. Heat Exhaustion is treated by resting in bed away from the heat, and drinking cool liquids.
Protective measures for hot weather:
The ideal place to be during hot spells is indoors, in an air-conditioned room. If your home is not air-conditioned, you might go to a cool public place like a library, movie theater, or store during the hottest hours.
Other good ways to cool off include taking cool baths or showers, placing ice-bags or wet towels on the body, and using electric fans.
It also wise to do the following:
Above all, take the heat seriously and don't ignore danger signs like nausea, dizziness, and fatigue.
The main ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS that affect our healthy Long Life are:
1. Our Geographic Location: Although all of the reasons are not clearly understood, there is no doubt that the length of our life varies considerably from one region to another. Some of the reasons are the purity and content of the air, the water, the climate, the mineral content of the soil, the altitude, and, most significantly of all - our way of life. Some notable facts of interest in this regard are: Those who live in a State in the Rocky Mountain Time Zone, or in New Mexico, Alaska, or Hawaii tend to live three to six years longer than people in other parts of the United States.
Those who live in small towns tend to live four to eight years longer than people who live in a city of a million or more people.
If you live in a city of a million or more people, you can take these steps to
reduce your own exposure to stress and pollution:
The ideal geographic situation, and the conditions in which people live the healthiest
and longest lives seem to be in hilly country, with no mechanical means of transportation,
and only natural foods, such as in the three areas where there is an unusually large number
of centenarians:
2 . Temperature Control: Research has repeatedly shown that a lower temperature in the home produces a significantly longer life span. Experiments with some organisms have shown that living in lower temperatures doubles the life spans of those organisms (rotifers, etc.). 68ø is a healthier temperature to maintain in the home than is 72ø, especially early in life; but does remain significant throughout life. Lower temperatures inhibit the proliferation of bacteria, and reduce wear and tear on the human organism, slowing down the aging process.
3 . Our Safety Habits
Obviously, we must move about in our lives with an awareness of intelligent safety
precautions against injury from accidents if we want to live long, healthy lives.
The most significant factor in this regard is safety on the streets while driving
motor vehicles. Driving accidents are the cause of so many disabilities, injuries,
and deaths each year, that driving safety is a definite factor in long life.
Some practical rules for driving safety are:
Neglecting just one of these precautions, once, can cost a life or a limb.
Does it really matter where you live, in terms of Long Life? Well, climate has no effect on the rate of aging, according to research. In fact, the physical characteristics of a location appear to have less significance than psychological factors such as the promotion of family ties, community involvement, friendships, and the other longevity factors.
For your information, though, I list the States in their order of life
expectancy, and the average number of years people live in each State:
| 1. Hawaii | 27. Indiana | ||
| 2. Minnesota | 28. Missouri | ||
| 3. Iowa | 29. Arkanasa | ||
| 4. Utah | 30. New York | ||
| 5. North Dakota | 31. Michigan | ||
| 6. Nebraska | 32. Oklahoma | ||
| 7. Wisconsin | 33. Texas | ||
| 8. Kansas | 34. Pennsylvania | ||
| 9. Colorado | 35. Ohio | ||
| 10. Idaho | 36. Virginia | ||
| 11. Washington | 37. Illinois | ||
| 12. Connecticut | 38. Maryland | ||
| 13. Massachusetts | 39. Tennessee | ||
| 14. Oregon | 40. Delaware | ||
| 15. New Hampshire | 41. Kentucky | ||
| 16. South Dakota | 42. North Carolina | ||
| 17. Vermont | 43. West Virginia | ||
| 18. Rhode Island | 44. Nevada | ||
| 19. Maine | 45. Alabama | ||
| 20. California | 46. Alaska | ||
| 21. Arizona | 47. Georgia | ||
| 22. New Mexico | 48. Mississippi | ||
| 23. Florida | 49. South Carolina | ||
| 24. New Jersey | 50. Louisiana | ||
| 25. Montana | 51. Washington DC | ||
| 26. Wyoming |
Some of the most important factors affecting these figures include health care quality and availability, traffic control, water quality according to mineral content (high selenium content is best), per capita income, air quality (though we have seen no acceptable research drawing a relationship between air quality and years of life, we believe there is a relationship).
Probably the most important consideration in choosing a place to live is how well you like the place, since happiness is such a major factor for Long Life.
The 10 healthiest metropolitan areas based on some of the top longevity factors (fatal traffic accidents, smoking laws, alcohol consumption, pollen count, etc.) are: Boston, Ma.; Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Pa.; Richmond, Va.; Greensboro, NC; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Rochester, NY; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; Milwaukee, WI.; Honolulu, Ha.; and Seattle, WA.
Carl Bourhenne, MA
