Quiz: your life expectancy

1 July 1978
Magill

HOW TO STAY alive can be a depressing business. You can jog to your heart's content, eat plenty of fibre to keep you motile, avoid polyunsaturated fats etc. All good things to do but they may be of no use.

Increasingly doctors are finding that the first year of life and the period prior to birth may already have

marked you out for the rest of your life. Studies show that obesity is related to early feeding patterns, that anxiety may stem from preenatal experiences, that breasttfeeding makes a person less likely to suffer disease in adulthood.

So if you want to know what the odds are (which can be improved almost certainly

by a healthy living style) it might prove chastening to use a series of questions devised by psychologist Dr. Diana Woodruffe, a life time stuudent of longevity. She has studied in detail the factors whisch make humans reduce their natural biological life span from 120 years. Her table includes genetics, job dissatisfaction, stress, and all

the other factors which make for an earlier death.

Tot up your score from Dr. Woodruffe's table and add or subtract your end score to the table of basic life expectancy below which has been devised from innsurance statistics. If you're a woman ADD three years to your basic life span.

Questions

1. What age did your granddparents live to?

2. Did any of your sisters, parents, brothers or granddparents die of a heart attack, strode or arteriosclerosis before the age of 50? Did any of them die of these diseases before the age of 60?

3. Did any of your sisters, brothers , parents or granddpasents die of diabetes melllitus or peptic ulcer before the age of 60?

4. Did any of the above die of stomach cancer before the age of 60?

5. Is your intelligence above average, i.e. above 100 I.Q. that is slightly above the pooled intelligence of K. Myers and V. Browne?

6. Are you a first born child?

7. Do you smoke more than 40 cigarettes per day? 8/9. 20-40 per day or less than 20?

10. Do you sleep for more than 10 hours a night or less than 5 hours?

11. Are you a Haughey freakie, i.e. do you jog, cycle, swim or go for brisk walks three times a week or more? Throw in dancing, skating, Provisional I.R.A. exercises for good measure. 12. Do you enjoy sex at least once a week?

13. Are you seven pounds or more overweight? Or have you been in recent years? ,14. Do' you live in a town (i.e. population over 2,000) with several industries?

15. Are you a graduate of a university? Or have you obtained an Honours Leaving Cert?

16. If you are a woman (examine yourself carefully now) do you have no children and plan to have none?

17. Alternatively do you have more than seven children? 18. Do you drink moderately, i.e. up to two large whiskies a day, a half litre of wine or two pints of beer? Alternaatively do you drink only occasionally, or only at weekkends and certainly not every day? Alternatively are you a heavy drinker or an alcoholic (N.DJ. members, P.P.'s and doctors can claim the fourth amendment here)? Are you a Pioneer?

19. Do you prefer simple foods, such as vegetables and fruit to richer, meatier, fatter foods?

20. Are you married and livving with your spouse?

21. Are you an unmarried woman (nuns can discount this question) over the age of 25?

22. Do you have a regular, thorough annual check-up? 23. Have you been frequently ill in the last five years even if it's only from minor ailments? 24. Jobs - are you professsional class, technical or managerial, clerk or proprieetorial class, semi-skilled laabourer or an unskilled labouurer?

Answers

1. Add 1 year for each grand - parent who lived to 80 or more, add h year for each one that lived beyond 70.

2. Take off four years if any sisters etc. died before 50, 2 years if any died before 60. 3. Three years off for any premature deaths here.

4. Two years off for premaature deaths here.

5. Add two years if you're brainier than average.

6. If you're first born add two years.

7. More than 40 a day knocks 12 years (sic) off your chart. 8. Subtract seven for 20-40 fags.

9. For less then 20 per day subtract two years.

10. Take off two years for either end of the sleep cycle. 11. If you really jog, walk, swim or do whatever torture C J .H. so ordains add three years to your voting life.

12. Regular sex is good for you, add two years.

13. Two years off for obesity.

14. Knock off 1 year for urrban dwelling, but add a year if you have spent most of your life in a rural situation. 15. Add 3 years if you've done post-graduate work, two if you're a mere B.A., one for a Honours Leaving Cert., for a pass nothing, sorry boys as the Minister for Justice says.

16. If you have no kids and don't want them subtract h a year.

17. Take off one year if you've more than seven kids,

it's suicide ladies!

18. If you drink moderately add three years (hie hie hurrray). If you only drink occaasionally add only 1 \12 years. If you're a Pioneer add nothhing at all (that shook them). But if you're a heavy social drinker knock off eight years pronto. The moral is plain to us simple P.M.P.A. members (Pint of Murphy Please Assoociation).

19. One year added if you really prefer simple foods and are able to stop eating before you feel too full. 20. Add one year if you're married and living with your spouse. (This section reads like a bishop's pastoral.) If you are a separated man knock off nine years (sic) seven years if you're a wiidower living alone. If you are living with a new mate halve these figures. Women sepaarated or living alone take off 4 years, widows 3h (unless you've found a new mate in which case remove two years in each case.)

21. Subtract one year for each decade beyond 25 even if you're living with someone.

22. Add two years.

23. Remove five years.

24. Add 1 h years if you have professional status, 1 year if you're technical or manaagerial, nothing either way if you're a proprietor, clerk etc, drop h a year if you're semiiskilled, if you're a labourer subtract four years.

Present life expectancy for
men (women should add 3
years to the expectancy table)
Present Age     Expectancy
15 ............... 70.7
16 ............... 70.8
17 .......... ; .... 70.8
18 ............... 70.9
19 ............... 71.0
20 ............... 71.1
21 ............... 71.1
22 ............... 71.2
23 ............... 71.3
24 ............... 71.3
25 ..............• 71.4
26       71.5
27 ................ 71.6
28 ............... 71.6
29 ............... 71.7
30 ............... 71.8
31 ............... 71.8
32 ............... 71.9
33 ............... 72.0
34 ............... 72.0
35 ............... 72.1
36 ............... 72.2
37 ............... 72.2
38 ............... 72.3
39 ............... 72.4
40 ............... 72.5
41 ............... 72.6
42 ............... 72.7
43 ............... 72.8
44 ............... 72.9
45 ............... 73.0
46 ............... 73.2
47 ............... 73.3
48 ............... 73.5
49 ............... 73.6
50 ............... 73.8
51 ............... 74.0
52 ............... 74.2
53 ............... 74.4
54 ............... 74.7
55 ............... 74.9
56 ............... 75.1
57 ............... 75.4
58 ............... 75.7
59 ............... 76.0
60 ............... 76.3
61 ............... 76.6
62 ............... 77.0
63 ............... 77.3
64 ............... 77.7
65 ............... 78.1
66 ............... 78.4
67 ............... 78.9
68 ............... 79.3
69 ............... 79.7
70 ............... 80.2