It is unknown how long we would live if all adverse factors were removed from our life and we had optimum health at all times. The known adverse factors would fill a page easily. But there is one which we have major control. That is hypertension, caused by external influences, and also known as high blood pressure. When the heart rate goes above 75 and stays there consistently it is time to talk to your doctor.

There are changes one can make in their life style that will bring down this kind of blood pressure.

It is common among those that live a hundred years or longer to keep life simple. They do not load up on unnecessary activity. Their food is simple home cooked foods. And they have time, and take time, to smell the roses. Let me tell you about two real examples.

The first had a high paying job, but it bugged him, and he grew to dislike that life. So he bought about 10-acres of land with a house and shed on it unknown to his wife and children. But one day he sold their house, and that costly car and moved them to the small farm. He quit the job and began doing odd jobs for people. For maybe 90-days his family were "fit to be tied." But after that time they could not be moved with "dynamite" as he said. They had all found a life style they loved.

Another man was a janitor for a large corporation all his life. It certainly did not "pay well." But he was happy in that work. So he raised two children through college, and at the time he retired had a house paid for, and a nice car for him and his wife. He also had $84,000 in company stock that today would be worth at least two times that amount. By any standard he was a successful man. He kept a simple life style and work from the very start.

I went one day to look at a cabin on a river. The owner told me to never tell anyone about that cabin when I met him at the cabin. The reason was this. No one at work knew that he owned it. So he and his wife would close their house on Friday and go to the cabin and no one could find him. There they could truly relax, fish some, or just lay around. He knew what his job was doing to him and the cabin provided an outlet, or more likely rest for his body and his nerves.

Did these folks ever have high blood pressure? I am sure they did, but it was not a constant malady.

1. We excuse high blood pressure with "that is the way the job is" or "that is the way it is" never once considering alternatives of a simpler life. We tell our self that we need the money from that job, refusing to acknowledge that we could live nicely with a lower paying job, or a less stressful job.

2. Medical conditions can raise the blood pressure and we may need to follow the doctor's orders when even a prescription can raise blood pressure. This can be hard to avoid.

3. Illegal drugs raise blood pressure among several damaging health affects.

4. Alcohol raises the blood pressure.

5. Too many activities outside work can raise blood pressure.

6. It is who you are that is more important that what you do or have done. If others know you as a "bundle of nerves'" it is time to take action for your own health, to begin enjoying life.

External influences can affect your health and longevity. You have control over them

Learn to enjoy life, healthy.