Consumer Directed Healthcare

The USA Weekend www.usaweekend.com ran an article on life expectancy. The interesting part about the article is that it really is about taking charge of your health. It is nothing more than our bodies saying, pay me know or pay me later. It is about being accountable for the usual suspects, i.e. eating, exercise, life style, and stress management.

Thomas Perls, M.D. introduced a longevity calculator in 1999. He came up with 23 questions that looked at personal lifestyle, family history and preventive care measures.

As medical discoveries have been made and old ones clarified, Dr Perls added to and modified his calculators. With the help of special on line calculator. Dr Perls and USA Weekend partnered to invite 25,000 readers to take his new longevity test. The results are very interesting. As Dr. Perls says,” The older you get, the healthier you’ve been.”

To date 1 million people have tried Perls’ calculator (to try out calculators and find out your score, go to www.LivingTo100.com if you are under 50, or to www.eons.com if you are 50 or older.)

Whether your score is 60 or 106, the stark number can be a wake up call. That’s because many of the factors that affect how long we live are things that we can control.