The human body is a remarkable machine. It will work well for 100 years or more—if given the proper care and maintenance.

I still remember it well, although the event occurred more than 40 years ago. Bernie, our 3 kids and me were traveling up the valley in 100-degree heat when the engine in our Ford station wagon suddenly stopped.

This was our 3rd breakdown in 60 days and the auto association wondered why we didn’t get our car fixed.

We didn’t particularly enjoy being stranded on the road either as this was in the “olden days” BCP (before cell phones). The problem was finally solved. We traded the car in.

Erin L. Clason, author of “On The Road To Fitness”, likens our body to a fine automobile. Clason says,

“Here are your options:

(A) an efficient vehicle with a well-tuned engine and every expectation of a long, healthy, and trouble free life,

(B) a neglected, poorly maintained junk model with sagging suspension, wheezy intake manifold, poor acceleration and high fuel consumption. Which will you choose?”

When it comes to maintaining my automobile my reputation leaves something to be desired. My son Chris has been known to comment unfavorably while changing the oil in my vehicle, which resembled a solid more than a liquid.

Some of us drive our body for several decades without so much as a thought to its care and maintenance. Sooner or later, however, you notice it is getting harder to start in the morning and there is less pep in the engine.        

Why is it that we take better care of our car than we do ourselves? One reason is that our Creator has given our bodies so much extra capacity that we seem to be getting by with it.  

Walter Bortz, M.D., author of we live too short and die too long says it well.

“Our arteries don’t give us any warning signs until it’s almost too late. We can start with 100% capacity and give away 50% ‘willy-nilly’. We can give away another 10% and still “seem O.K. Another 10%—down to 30% of original and we experience shortness of breath. Before the doctor is seen 70% of capacity is gone, and only a few percentage points separate the individual from the undertaker.”

New cars are much more reliable today and everyone owns at least one cell phone, which reduces the trauma of getting stuck on the road. When your human body falls apart there is no trade-in market.

In my profession I see a lot of people who just never get around to giving their body regular preventive maintenance. They are toying with the possibility of needing a road service vehicle that is operated by a team of paramedics.

Don’t let your body become a “Junker”. The renewal capacity of life is one of its wonders; we are improvable and redeemable, no matter what our age or how we may have neglected our bodies in the past.

But we have to get started. If not now when? 

Gene

NEW PAGES ADDED

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1. Triglycerides - A big word that can cause a big problem.

2. Cholesterol-Check - An innovative new product that does an excellent job of

.....reducing LDL cholesterol ("bad boys, bad boys") increasing HDL's (the good guys)

.....and lowers triglycerides. It includes the powerful combination of policosanol,

.....coenzyme Q10, niacin and grape seed extract.

A LITTLE HUMOR
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Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions
.....its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings
.....for common words.
And the winners are:
1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly
.....answer the door in your nightgown.
7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are
.....run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by
.....proctologists.
13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with
.....Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), the belief that, when you die, your Soul
.....flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by
.....Jewish males.

The interview with God