Life span is the maximum age livable for the species and it determined by the age of the oldest living member of that species. In the case of humans, that individual was Madame Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.
    Studies on twins have established that 25% variation in human life span can be attributed to genes, whereas 75 percent could be attributed to several modifiable biological and behavioural factors. Furthermore studies have found that though there are many centenarians who are healthy, there is equal number of centenarians who live with chronic diseases but without suffering from disability.
    It is estimated that there are nearly one million centenarians currently living in the world. 15% of them are men and 85% of them are women. Many of the centenarians lead, a fairly independent or minimally- assisted lives. Ralph Waldo McBurney, 105 years old published his autobiography in 2004 titled, ‘My first 100 years’. He runs his own business and drives his car. He regularly participates in 100-meter dash competition for seniors. “It is easy to earn gold medals when one has no competition in one’s age group,” he says jokingly. “I started to slow down in my late 80s,” he said. His slowed down activities includes walking a mile to his office daily, tending 100 colonies of bees and gardening.
     Researchers who had studied Waldo and other active centenarians offer the following suggestions for those who would like to lead a long and independent life.
  

1.      Maintain the right weight: Extra weight puts strain on the pumping power of the heart, leading to heart ailments. Extra weight results in sedentary lifestyle leading to diabetes. Both shorten life.

2.      Eat less: Eat only when you are hungry and eat only that much to satisfy your hunger. Research on animals suggests that reduction in feed resulted in an increase of 40% in their life span.

3.      Lead an active life: Sedentary lifestyle is a major cause of diseases. Walk to office. Climb the stairs. Wash dishes. Clean the house. Weed the garden.

4.      Keep fit: Exercise regularly. There is no need to go to the gym. Just take up brisk walking or cycling or swimming. Switch on the music and start dancing.

5.    Manage stress: Stress releases the cortisol hormone constantly into the blood stream, which leads to cardio vascular ailments. Learn to manage stress. Have friends to talk to. Pray and worship. Learn to meditate. Read jokes. Smile and laugh often.

6.      Eat healthy diet: Include more veggies, fruits, seeds and nuts in your diet. Cut down on sugar and salt. Restrict meat diet to fish and fowl. Eliminate red meat.

7.    Be optimistic: Keep in mind that both sorrow and happiness never last forever. Whatever is the misfortune – death of a dear one, divorce, loss of job, loss of money – the impact will subside in course of time and it will pave way for a new beginning.

8.      Sleep well: Sound sleep rejuvenates both body and mind. Ensure a conducive environment of darkness and silence that gives you 8 hours of sound sleep.

9.      Stop smoking: It is the major cause of different types of cancer. Stopping smoking significantly reduces the risk of developing cancer. 

   The ironic death of Mr. James Fixx, the ‘Jogging Guru’ who had a heart attack and died while jogging, at the age of 52, raises once again the question whether exercise is good for us or bad for us.

    Regular exercise improves physical fitness and health, strengthens immunity to diseases and helps prevent diabetes and heart ailments and improves mental health as well. So there is no doubt that exercise is good for us. But it depends on the type of exercises.

     Generally, exercises are grouped into three categories, based on the effect they have on the body.

1. Stretching exercises such as yoga, tai-chi, qi gong etc. improves the flexibility of the muscles and joints.
2. Aerobic exercises (exercises that use oxygen as fuel to generate energy), such as brisk walking, cycling, swimming (low impact aerobic exercises) and jogging, dancing, playing tennis (high impact aerobic exercises) strengthens the heart, improves blood circulation, increases lung capacity and reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
3. Anaerobic exercises (exercises that use fat as fuel to generate energy), such as push ups, sprinting, weightlifting, resistant training etc. helps build muscle mass, increases muscle strength, increases bone strength and boosts physical stamina and physical performance.

     All traditional medical systems such as Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Chinese Medicine etc. consider constipation as the root of all diseases. Why? Nutrition from the diet is absorbed through the walls of the intestines and if the intestines are not clean, the nutrition is contaminated at the source itself. That’s why traditional medicines insists on cleaning the intestines, before starting any treatment. Western medicine has now acknowledged this fact and it terms it as toxemia.

      Apart from being the source of all chronic diseases, constipation leads to colorectal cancer (cancer of the colon and rectum), the second major cause of death next to lung cancer. The standard treatment for colorectal cancer in western medicine is colostomy (removal of the cancerous part of the colon).

     If one knows what is colostomy  and what is the lifestyle of colostomates (people who had undergone colostomy), one would appreciate the importance of intestinal cleanliness and do whatever it takes to eliminate constipation.

      Colostomy is a surgery where the healthy part of the colon is separated from the cancerous part of the colon and the healthy colon is attached to the external abdominal wall leaving the patient with an opening on the abdominal wall. After the surgery the faeces moves out of the body through this abdominal opening. Colostomates must wear a pouch to collect the faeces. The pouch must me emptied several times in a day and must be changed daily.

     HealthGrades, a leading healthcare ratings organization, that provides ratings and profiles of hospitals and physicians to consumers and companies found that medical errors cost 8.8 billion dollars and resulted in 238,337 preventable  deaths during 2004 to 2006.

         “While many U.S hospitals have taken extensive action to prevent medical errors, the prevalence of likely preventable patient safely incidents is taking a costly toll on our health care systems-in both lives and dollars,” said Dr.Samantha Collier, HealthGrades chief medical officer and the author of the study.

     HealthGrades applied the methodology developed by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to identify the incident rates of the following 16 patient-safety indicators.