| Prepare to Live Long |
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| Written by Norman Corwin - USC | |
| Sunday, 04 January 2009 | |
 Los Angeles, California - I have a brother who is 105 years old. He would have died 65 years ago if he conformed to the average life expectancy in the United States at the time of his birth. This century has seen the dawn of aviation and the flourishing of aerial bombardment; the use of poison gas; the failed experiment of prohibition; gang wars; the rise and fall of Communism and fascism; hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes which sometimes killed as many as 50,000 in a single shake, yet the world population remains dangerously dense. So how do I come by my optimism about the current college-aged generation living longer? Because medical science and education stop for nobody; anti-smoking crusades so far have been largely successful; and medical lore has spread like a deluge in this and other countries. Television in America brims with advertised medications for even the most common diseases, including sexual and psychological dysfunction, which modesty and the FCC forbade until recently. Pharmaceutical companies constantly take full-page ads in which their formulae are printed and warnings are posted against side effects and potential dangers. Why? Partly because the better medical schools of the world, led by this country, are busy publishing excellent treatises on prevention and treatment of strokes, heart attacks, diabetes and digestive diseases. These reports are very well written in language that is clear and convincing. Some of the greatest hospitals and universities in the country are involved, including Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General, Tufts University, Berkeley and an outfit with a long reach called Bottom Line, which publishes a zinger of a Bottom Line Yearbook, which always contains excellent medical components. Do not avoid the medical lore which comes to you regularly in increasing volume nor deign to honor it because it may reach you at little or no cost. Not to be overlooked, either, are the medical facilities of this university, which are fully logged in the redoutable USC campus directory. |
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