smoking and swimming

I remember bits and pieces of a longevity questionnaire I took a few ago. The numbers said that smoking statistically takes 12 years off your life. That was the biggest single factor. Being married was the next biggest factor, but the formula is much more complicated -- a married man who divorces loses 9 years; single men who never marry lose 2 years for every decade beyond age 25. Exercise and nutrition can account for many years, but you have to add together a lot of separate factors. Phil Whitten's book "The Complete Book of Swimming" has such a questionnaire. These things are based on the mortality statistics used by actuaries to determine life insurance premiums (i.e., there are big dollars at stake!), so there must be good science there, too.

I remember bits and pieces of a longevity questionnaire I took a few ago. The numbers said that smoking statistically takes 12 years off your life. That was the biggest single factor. Being married was the next biggest factor, but the formula is much more complicated -- a married man who divorces loses 9 years; single men who never marry lose 2 years for every decade beyond age 25. Exercise and nutrition can account for many years, but you have to add together a lot of separate factors. Phil Whitten's book "The Complete Book of Swimming" has such a questionnaire. These things are based on the mortality statistics used by actuaries to determine life insurance premiums (i.e., there are big dollars at stake!), so there must be good science there, too.