Note: This column is by Howard S. Friedman, Ph.D. & Ephraim P. Engleman, M.D.
One of us is a 100-year-old physician who has been in an ongoing research study since 1917, and the other is a baby-boomer health researcher who has been heavily involved in conducting that remarkable study. This...
Posted August 3, 2011 | 08/03/11 02:51 PM ET
With Barack Obama turning 50 this week, attention focuses on how the stresses of presidency are aging him. The dumbest (but most common) way to examine this is to compare pictures from the 2007-08 campaign to how he looks today. This is ridiculous and meaningless, because we do not have...
Posted July 13, 2011 | 07/13/11 05:21 PM ET
My co-author and wonderful colleague Dr. Leslie Martin was on the Today Show (NBC) this week with the maker of the cool new documentary "How To Live Forever." As a health scientist, Leslie was there with filmmaker Mark Wexler to provide research-based insight into the real reasons why...
Posted July 4, 2011 | 07/04/11 06:57 PM ET
The first four U.S. presidents -- Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison -- plus Benjamin Franklin -- lived an average of more than 82 years, and they did so without the benefit of modern medical care. To the contrary, George Washington, who became seriously ill after a day's horseback ride through...
Posted April 24, 2011 | 04/24/11 07:10 PM ET
The truth of the matter is that we are not really living much longer. We hear the propaganda repeated endlessly: "The average American can today expect to live an extra dozen or more years in retirement than did the previous generation, and many retirees today will receive benefits for decades...
Posted April 2, 2011 | 04/02/11 12:35 PM ET
"Cheer up, watch funny shows, laugh heartily and you'll stay healthy!" It's ever-present advice, but it's wrong, wrong, wrong. We hear it all the time. If you're ill, spend a few days glued to the screen watching the exuberance of "Glee" and the laugh-out-loud comedy of "Seinfeld" reruns and, so...
Posted March 22, 2011 | 03/22/11 08:27 PM ET
People often ask me if praying leads to better health and longer life. For the past 20 years, my colleague Dr. Leslie Martin and I have been studying the religious beliefs, the personalities, the social relationships, the habits and the careers of more than 1,500 Californians who were first studied...
Posted February 24, 2012 | 02/24/12 12:20 PM ET