I know that after I read it, it got me thinking and that is generally a good thing. I found myself wondering about other health beliefs that are typically taken for granted. For example, cigarettes will kill you. Everybody knows that - right? They take, I've been told repeatedly, eleven minutes off your life every time you light up. But is that such a bad thing if they contribute to the quality of your life? Do the math and you'll find that if you start at age 20 and smoke a pack a day you'll be checking out in your early rather than in your late 70's. I don't smoke but I do drink. So lets see, early 70's...late 70's...no way would I trade my daily deep dish Martini for a handful of years at the end when I'm not even sure where I am most of the time.

I also wonder why it is that since we've pretty much destroyed the tobacco growing industry (the one thing the whole world agreed we did well) and most people no longer smoke, we don't see a corresponding decline in lung cancer? I'm just asking? Do you know something I don't?

And while I'm asking, what good are health foods? Personally, I have to question the whole idea of so-called "junk" food and the notion that what you eat (within reason) really makes much of a difference. Your body evolved to absorb what it needs and eliminate what it doesn't I see where people in different parts of the world with radically different diets have been getting along and, in fact, making even more people for hundreds of thousands of years. So when exactly did you last hear someone who really knows about such things - and wasn't selling a book - diagnose a case of vitamin deficiency? I recently read that of all the billions of dollars spent each year on vitamins and supplements only ginger has been shown to have a demonstrable effect. It eases the nausea brought on by chemotherapy. You wouldn't trust a shop that sells crystal balls to divine your future so why would you frequent one that offers homeopathic remedies to treat your cold?

And while I have your attention, do you know anyone who has AIDS who doesn't also present with a related lifestyle factor? The story is that you're exposed to HIV and that's it. A perfectly healthy individual withers and dies. Is it possible that HIV is merely an opportunistic virus? Can't one assume that once somebody beats their immune system all to hell they're apt to catch all sorts of things? There's the story about the woman who wakes up in a hotel room after a one-night-stand and finds a note reading: Welcome to the World of AIDS. Does anybody actually know who that woman is? Is she related to the guy who woke up, perhaps in the same hotel, with a kidney missing?

Isn't it odd that often the very things you're told are bad sometimes turn out to be really great? In a study reported in the Journal of British Medicine, men who had twice as much sex were half as likely to die prematurely. Maybe that's why prostate problems were originally referred to as Monk's disease? A researcher in the UK found that small doses of radiation could actually strengthen your immune system. And now, it's been pretty well established (at least to my satisfaction) that a couple of glasses of wine a day will add a couple of years (happy years one presumes) to your life.

Some of you, no doubt, are nodding your heads and saying it's about time you're reading this while others are foaming at the mouth. If you're qualified to comment (not if you merely have an opinion) there's a place below for comments. I'm both bright and well educated yet I seriously wonder about the items I've mentioned. If half of what people believe at any given time/place turns out not to be true, what about things like the HIV/AIDS connection and the value of health versus junk foods and the persistent level of cancer cases despite a significant drop in the number of smokers? I have no ax to grind, no ideology to defend and no bias to confirm. Please believe me when I say that I'm truly open to legitimate insight in these matters.