Postpone Your Funeral

POSTPONE YOUR FUNERAL By James H. Wallis, Executive Secretary Utah Public Health Association There is nothing surer in life than the fact that we must all die. There is no greater fallacy, however, than that embodied in the oft- heard proposition, "The good die young." There isn't any reason why anybody should die young unless he dies of an unpreventable accident. Statistics show that most people could live to a ripe old age if they themselves and their communities exercised the proper care for individual and public health. In other words, it is a perfectly easy matter, provided one wishes to pay the cost of postponing the date of his own funeral. Records of the United States Bureau of the Census, insurance companies and others that have made a study of the subject show that considerably over ninety percent of the people who die are taken away by accidents or diseases that are in themselves easily preventable. More than eighty-five percent of the deaths occur before the age of seventy-five. There comes to mind at once dozens of ways in which human life could be saved and prolonged. It is safe to say, for instance, that practically all the accidents in industry and on the street are preventable. Such diseases as typhoid fever, pneumonia, scarlet fever, diphtheria, influenza, infantile diarrhea, and tuberculosis also are preventable and can be eliminated or reduced to a comparative minimum. And yet 100,000 persons died from tuberculosis alone last year in the United States and reliable estimates indicate that there are nearly one million active cases of this disease at the present time in this country. If tuberculosis as a cause of death could be eliminated it would of itself add on an average two and one-half years to the life of every man, woman and child in the country. Broadly speaking, in order to postpone your funeral and in order to set the date well on into the three score and ten, two lines of action are necessary. First, there must be a very definite attention on your part to matters dealing with your own health and the care of your body — that group of health measures that are called personal hygiene. In the second place, there must be a very definite cooper- ation with you on the part of every citizen in the community in promoting those measures that make for public or community health. The first group of activities involves you as an individual. The second involves you as a citizen. In the first group of activities, the things you eat are probably of the greatest importance. Food of various kinds is the fuel that builds and nourishes the body and that provides the energy with which

148 IMPROVEMENT ERA we work. Whole libraries of books have been written on^the subject of food. There are thousands of fads running all the way from the eat-and-grow-fat to the eat-and-grow-thin variety. There are people who must chew their food so many minutes and there are others that advocate gulping it down with plenty of water. There are those who say eat only vegetables, and others who say eat only meat. Some advise living on mild and liquid food, and some only on solid food. In the mass of advice the average individual is apt to be bewildered unless he uses his own common sense. In general, however, it is pretty well to observe these few broad rules: First of all, avoid eating too much. Most persons do not heed this rule. The greatest danger is not that we will lack nourish- ment, but that we will get too much food. Of course, the man who does vigorous physical exercise ought to eat more than the man or woman who sits at a desk or does nothing in the way of vigorous exercise. The amount of food will depend on the amount of physical work being done. Secondly, do not eat too much meat and eggs. A certain amount of meat and eggs with a good mixture of vegetables, particularly the green and bulky kind, are desirable. We eat all too little foods like lettuce, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, onions, carrots, parsnips and tomatoes, and are apt to eat too much of the more solid starchy foods. Thirdly, eat varieties of food. Do not stick to one kind of diet. Use good common sense and your own taste. Be sure to drink a great deal of water; at least six glasses a day. You will probably not get too much even if you drink a gallon or more a day. And be sure to eat slowly, never gulping down food without chewing. The stomach and the intestines have no teeth. The food must be chewed in the mouth before it is swallowed. Next to food, probably the most important rules of health deal with rest and exercise. The human body requires rest just the same as any machine. It is, in fact, the most delicately adjusted piece of machinery that there is in the universe. It cannot run twenty-four hours a day and three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. There should be a balance of rest and exercise, both physical and mental. Definite rules cannot be prescribed for everyone. It depends upon the individual and upon his work and habits to a certain extent. Generally speaking, eight hours' play, eight hours' work and eight hours' sleep is a pretty fair division of the twenty-four-hour day. When one works twelve or fourteen hours, or plays fourteen or fifteen hours, he is apt to be burning the candle at both ends, and the result will soon show itself in the wearing out or breaking down of certain parts of the human machine. Cleanliness is akin to godliness. Clean bodies outside and inside are essential. The skilled mechanic does not allow his machine to become clogged with grease arid dirt. He oils and scours and cleans it.

POSTPONE YOUR FUNERAL 149 Similarly, the human body needs the same type of attention. It must be clean on the outside surface and on the inside surface. This is done by the application of water and by proper attention to diet. The man or woman who lives right and observes the proper rules of health need not worry as a general rule about proper regulation of the bowels. The human machine will take care of that. It requires care, however, not only to diet, but to rest, to exercise and the rules of health. Another general rule for health that might be laid down might be labeled "fresh air." Air is not only the breath of life; it is the stimulator of life. The only real, pure air there is, is outdoor air. Any kind of inside air is more or less impure. Consequently, living outdoors, sleeping outdoors and playing outdoors are all essentials to human health. We cannot do all of these things all the time, but we can do all of them some of the time. The amount of fresh, outside air that the human body gets both on its surface and through its lungs determines to a very large extent the length of life and human vitality. A final rule of health is this — Be overhauled by a competent physician at least once a year. No thinking man runs his automobile year after year without overhauling it. In fact, he could not do so. It would break down. Any kind of machine needs overhauling after a certain amount of use. So does the human body. A periodical overhauling not only discovers defects and impairments in time to remedy them, but it also points out what correction of habits are necessary in order to prevent the development of possible defects that may not yet appear, To sum it all up, one's health is largely in his own hands by proper attention to the rules of health, barring community accidents which we cannot as individuals control, but which as citizens we can help to control. Everybody ought to live his allotted three score and ten and then some more. The greatst little health advertiser ever invented — the Christmas Seal, has done much in the great program of health. It will soon be on sale at one cent each. The proceeds from this sale go to teach the boys and girls, and men and women how to live long and how they may postpone their funerals. You will be asked to buy Christmas seals. The amount of our support will to some degree indicate your own interest in your health and in the health of your family. The need is great, the opportunity is greater. A number of men were reporting in their Quorum on the harmony existing in their homes. John was reporting and stated that he and his wife were always in perfect unity. "If, for example, we are decorating the house and my wife prefers a red color, and I prefer a more modest gray, we compromise by choosing red."