In 1974, while in graduate school in Michigan, he developed the death calculator and shortly later received the support of the United States Administration on Aging. Since that time it has been used all over the world as a predictor of life expectancy, based upon certain lifestyle behavior patterns.
The death calculator itself is actually a simple quiz that includes questions like the following:
“Do you have an annual physical exam?” If so, add three years to your score. If not, subtract three years from your score.
“Do you volunteer on a weekly basis?” If so, add two years to your score. If not, one year deducted. Volunteering means non-paid service to unrelated individuals.
“Are you able to laugh at, and learn from your mistakes?” If not, subtract three years. (Can I just subtract 2 if I am able to do this just sometimes?)
“Do you smoke a pack of cigarettes daily?” Subtract four years. Live or work with smokers? Subtract one year.
There’s more. “Do you own a pet?” Add two years for interactive pets (dog, cat, bird). Add one year for passive pets (fish, reptile, tarantula) - (This dude does not know my pets - and I don't call reptiles passive). If you are left-handed, subtract one year. (strange? But remember - Judas was on the left of Jesus - and the "goats" are on the left in the judgement). For every inch of your height that exceeds 5’8”, subtract six months. (I'm toast) “Are you a religious person, and do you practice your faith?” If so, add two years.” (How about if I most of the time practice at least 1 of the 2?)
According to this -long life isn’t just a result of smart genes and dumb luck. Most of the time, it’s due to moderate eating, sleeping, diet, exercise, work and leisure. In fact, 80 percent of the factors that control how long you live are related to your lifestyle, not your genes -- now that's good news for me. Add that to the fact that I have honored my parents (I think) & I am good to go for a long life. (Remember the commandment to honor our folks has a promise attached to it).
Dr. Demko’s quiz may predict when I am going to die, but that’s not really the point of his death calculator, is it? The point is to choose to live in the healthiest way possible — now, before I'm dead, and have no choices at all.
I better get my act together ... now! Talk about urgency about getting on with life now, and not later when it may well be too late. Paul's words - “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
It’s this lack of attention to life, passing through without deliberate intention to a moral life that led Henry David Thoreau in 1854 to the radical decision to live alone for a time. Thoreau did not want to let life pass him by — he wanted to live it with full attention.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,” wrote Thoreau in Walden, “to confront only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
In the end, it doesn’t matter when I die. It matters only how I’ve lived. FYI - the calculator says I should have died 5 years ago. So I'm feeling pretty good right now - right?
The death calculator itself is actually a simple quiz that includes questions like the following:
“Do you have an annual physical exam?” If so, add three years to your score. If not, subtract three years from your score.
“Do you volunteer on a weekly basis?” If so, add two years to your score. If not, one year deducted. Volunteering means non-paid service to unrelated individuals.
“Are you able to laugh at, and learn from your mistakes?” If not, subtract three years. (Can I just subtract 2 if I am able to do this just sometimes?)
“Do you smoke a pack of cigarettes daily?” Subtract four years. Live or work with smokers? Subtract one year.
According to this -long life isn’t just a result of smart genes and dumb luck. Most of the time, it’s due to moderate eating, sleeping, diet, exercise, work and leisure. In fact, 80 percent of the factors that control how long you live are related to your lifestyle, not your genes -- now that's good news for me. Add that to the fact that I have honored my parents (I think) & I am good to go for a long life. (Remember the commandment to honor our folks has a promise attached to it).
Dr. Demko’s quiz may predict when I am going to die, but that’s not really the point of his death calculator, is it? The point is to choose to live in the healthiest way possible — now, before I'm dead, and have no choices at all.
It’s this lack of attention to life, passing through without deliberate intention to a moral life that led Henry David Thoreau in 1854 to the radical decision to live alone for a time. Thoreau did not want to let life pass him by — he wanted to live it with full attention.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,” wrote Thoreau in Walden, “to confront only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
In the end, it doesn’t matter when I die. It matters only how I’ve lived. FYI - the calculator says I should have died 5 years ago. So I'm feeling pretty good right now - right?
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