THE LIFE-EXPECTANCY TEST

Diana S. Woodruff has devised a life-expectancy test based on statistical data and medical studies that has been modified slightly to accommodate the most up-to-date scientific studies. The test consists of thirty-two items in four broad categories: heredity and family, education and occupation, life-style, and health:

I. Heredity and Family

   1. Longevity of grandparents

       2. Longevity of parents

       3. Cardiovascular disease of close relatives

       4. Other hereditable diseases of close relatives

       5. Childbearing

       6. Mother’s age at your birth

       7. Birth order

       8. Intelligence

   II. Education and Occupation

  9. Years of education

10. Occupational level

11. Family income

12. Activity on the job

13. Age and work

III. Life-style

14. Urban vs. rural living

15. Marital status

16. Living status if single

17. Life changes

18. Friendship

19. Aggressive personality

20. Flexible personality

21. Risk-taking personality

22. Depressive personality

23. Happy personality

IV. Health

24. Percent body fat

25. Dietary habits

26. Smoking

27. Drinking

28. Exercise

29. Sleep

30. Sexual activity

31. Regular physical examinations

32. Health status

You probably have noticed that only one of the thirty-two items on the test is directly concerned with exercise. This factor by itself can add up to three years to your life. If that was all swimming could do, it would be pretty spectacular. Who, after all, would not like to live an extra three healthy, vigorous years? But, as will be shown, a regular program of swimming can affect many other aspects of your life as well: from your weight and percent body fat to your blood pressure and smoking habits; from your susceptibility to disease to your personality and even your sex life. It can change the way you feel and the way you feel about yourself. These changes are reflected in ten additional items on the life-expectancy test, totaling thirty to fifty years.

As my editor reminded me, however, it is important to keep in mind that nothing will make you immortal, not even swimming. Some years ago the hype surrounding running seemed to imply that you could live forever if only you ran long enough and consistently enough. This hype came to an abrupt end in 1984, when running guru Jim Fixx tragically died of a heart attack at the early age of fifty-two while out for a jog on a country road.

Many people concluded that all Fixx’s running did not avail him a bit. Or worse still, that his running caused his early death. In fact, the likelihood is that exercise helped Fixx live longer than he would have otherwise. Fixx was the unfortunate recipient of bad genes: his father had died in his mid-forties of a

heart attack. And before taking up running in early middle age, Fixx himself had lived a life designed to lead to an early death: he smoked heavily, weighed over 200 pounds, and exercised only sporadically.

I’m not saying I’m superstitious, but Jim Fixx’s editor is now my editor, so when he implored me not to claim any benefits for swimming that are not firmly grounded in scientific fact, I took what he said seriously.

Swimming will not—repeat, not—make you immortal. But it can add many dynamic, robust years to your life.

The benefits swimming can confer are now well-established by scientific research. Aside from the three years that it can add directly to your life, swimming can favorably affect almost every aspect of your life not determined by your genes. The life-expectancy test illustrates how this can happen.

Here is how the test works:

Begin by finding your life expectancy from an actuarial table. This figure shows how many years the “average” American of your age, sex, and race can expect to live. The most recent actuarial table, produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, appears in Appendix C.

Then, by keeping a running score based on your personal attributes, you will end up with a personalized life expectancy. Of course there is no guarantee that you actually will live the precise number of years predicted by the test. These figures are based on a large pool of people and only predict what is likely to happen to the majority of people in your age, sex, and racial category.

Here is how it worked for Lynda Myers (see Table 5.1).

Part I. Heredity and Family (items 1–8).

Part I is not affected by swimming. Lynda’s heredity loses her three years. Although she had two grandparents who lived beyond the age of seventy (item 1), her father died of a heart attack at age fifty-nine (items 2 and 3), and a grandmother died of breast cancer (item 4).

Part II. Education and Occupation (items 9–13).

The items in this part of the test also are not affected by swimming, but here Lynda picks up three years. Her educational background (item 9), occupational level (item 10), and family income (item 11) all work in her favor, although her sedentary job works against her.

All in all, the factors Lynda could not change are a wash: they don’t affect her life expectancy at all.

Part III. Life-style (items 14–23).

Changes in Lynda’s life-style that she identifies as resulting from her swimming account for a shift of eight years, from -6 to +2. Her new activity, she feels, has led to new friendships (item 18) and has made her a less aggressive, more flexible, happier person (items 19, 20, 22, and 23).

Part IV. Health (items 24–32).

Here is where Lynda’s swimming makes the biggest difference. Before she began swimming, Lynda could have expected to lose eighteen years from her life because of the destructive way she was treating her body. Four years later there was a dramatic change. Lynda had gained twelve years over the average life expectancy.

How? She lost the excess weight she had been carrying around for years and reduced her body-fat percentage from 33 to 28 percent (item 24); she quit smoking (item 26); she was exercising daily (item 28); she slept better (item 29); she increased her sexual activity (item 30); she saw her blood pressure drop to normal and her chronic colds disappear almost completely (item 32). She looked better, felt better, and lived better. Her daily sessions in the pool had added thirty years to her life expectancy—literally, the gift of life. Lynda sums up her attitude this way: “I know that with every stroke I take, I’m adding to my life. As a plus, I’m making that life more worth living.”

Lynda Myers is only one of tens of thousands of people whose lives have been both enriched and lengthened by swimming. I am another.