HEALTH

People who practice their religious faith regularly may be getting some earthly benefits: They appear to be healthier compared to people who never attend a house of worship. A study conducted by sociologists at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., found that 4 percent of those who regularly went to church or synagogue reported poor health, compared with 9 percent of those who did not attend a house of worship. And 36 percent of weekly worshippers reported they were in excellent health, compared with 26 percent of non-attenders.

Why the difference? Researchers aren't sure, but they say the reason may be that people attending weekly services may be more likely to see friends who ask about their health and can recommend a doctor. 

Spokesman Review, October, 1992.

In 1846 former president John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke. Although he returned to Congress the following year, his health was clearly failing. Daniel Webster described his last meeting with Adams: "Someone, a friend of his, came in and made particular inquiry of his health. Adams answered, 'I inhabit a weak, frail, decayed tenement; battered by the winds and broken in upon by the storms, and from all I can learn, the landlord does not intend to repair.'" 

Today in the Word, April 11, 1992.

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like and do what you'd rather not. 

Mark Twain.

Be careful about reading health books. You might die of a misprint. 

Mark Twain.

Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. 

Erma Bombeck.

On October 7, 1983, United Press International sent out a second-day story on the funeral of New York's Cardinal Terence J. Cooke. This was the eighth paragraph: "As the coffin was lifted and carried to the altar, more than 3000 mourners sung the hymn, 'O God Our Health and Age Has Passed.'"

United Press International.