Dr. Lester Breslow, Dean of UCLA’s School of Public Health, discovered that 7 Simple Health Habits make a huge difference in life with a 60-year-old being as healthy as a 30-year-old who followed only one or two habits..

A follow-up study showed that those who followed only one good habit were 50% more likely to become disabled within 10 years compared to those with four or more good health habits.

So what are they? They are best remembered by this picture and acronym, NEW START.

The “Seven Healthy Habits” are:

1. Eat breakfast every day and Eat regularly, whether that’s two meals a day or three. Whatever you do normally, keep it up because it’s the regularity of life and moderation in eating, sleeping and exercising that makes all the difference.

2. Exercise 30 minutes at a time, several times a week. Walking vigorously is a top choice.

3. It was healthy to drink water—five glasses a day or more.

4. Forget the scales. Eat moderately to maintain weight in relation to height.

5. Don’t drink at all or drink moderately.

6. Don’t smoke.

   7. Get a good night’s sleep of seven or eight hours.

   8. Breslow’s study included the question, Are you happy? The healthy, happy people were more pro-active in their approach to life, addressing problems and serving others. In the acronym above, this is represented by Trust in God or in Nature for health and healing.

This impacts an overlooked question on Breslow’s study—the topic of medical care. Medical care appeared to help increase longevity because 100 years ago, many children died of diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus—disease that were eradicated by vaccines.

But the truth is, if a person survived those diseases, a man of 50 would live as long as a man of 50 in Breslow’s study, and now those who get regular medical care are doing worse because prescription drugs have become a leading cause of illness, disability and death.

Another overlooked item in Breslow’s study is the 5 glasses of water a day. That’s not pop or coffee. Caffeine is a drug associated with a dozen medical problems that aren’t heard of because the media is mute on topics as seen in this video: https://youtu.be/tXyM_gsi58I

There is one other overlooked focus in Breslow’s study initiated in the 1960′s. Cholesterol was only starting to get focus from the Framingham Study that showed people with a cholesterol of 260 had four times the risk of those below 200, and Japanese who average 180 or less had one fourth the risk of Americans averaging 220. If you factor this into Breslow’s study, the advantagle of healthy habits and eating is huge.

Dr. Richard Ruhling is author of God Bless America? with a chapter on healthcare and is free on New Year’s Day on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075896HPD