Letters: Feb. 11, 2002

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How to Keep the Doctor Away

"As we teach children to read and add at a young age, so should we teach them the values and methods of a healthy lifestyle." JOE HERZOG Fresno, Calif.

Kudos for your special report [STAYING HEALTHY, Jan. 21]. As a certified pediatric nurse practitioner, I am constantly preaching to families that the real trick to not getting sick is eating healthy, getting vaccinated and exercising. If we can get more kids and their families to follow this advice, the next generation of adults will be healthier. KATHY FERTIG Santa Fe, N.M.

There is no shortcut to a healthy life. Each of us already possesses the most effective health and fitness device available--the brain--and needs only the good sense and will power to use it. Our health is our vehicle to the future. Mistreated, it gets us there with flat tires and dents--or not at all. DAVID A. LEGGOE Barrington, N.J.

How many people are going to seek out healthy foods when they are not prevalent in our most visible eateries, the fast-food joints? SARA D. HAUBER Chicago

Americans should wake up to the frightening level of risk at which we have placed our children. The best solution is to require every schoolchild in the country to be enrolled in a physical education class. As we teach children to read and add at a young age, so should we teach them the values and methods of a healthy lifestyle. Just as we have upgraded literacy programs in our schools, let us improve our physical education classes. JOE HERZOG Fresno, Calif.

--The woman with the healthy glow on our cover caused quite a stir among you. Not all the comment she inspired was complimentary. "Good health is not about being pretty," declared a Californian. "It means being fit and empowered, qualities that stereotypically pretty women do not necessarily embody." The majority of readers, however, were enthusiastic fans. "If Helen of Troy was blessed with such a face," wrote a Floridian, "then I sympathize completely with the behavior of Paris." Allowed an Alabaman: "She may be the healthiest person I've ever seen." Office workers in Indiana asked, "We're racking our brains--who is she? How can we call her?" Our cover girl is model Deirdre Seltzer, but her phone number we're keeping private.

A Hopeful Sign

Your article "Vaccines Stage A Comeback" [STAYING HEALTHY, Jan. 21] summed it up perfectly: "Vaccines are the great prevention success story of modern medicine." Rather than a fading technology, vaccines are a present wonder and, with new biotechnology developments, will help conquer a wider range of infectious diseases. A recent renewal of interest in the benefits of vaccines is a hopeful sign that researchers who are continuing to investigate the potential of new vaccines will receive public support and the investment needed to fuel their work and inspire even greater developments. DON L. DOUGLAS, PRESIDENT SABIN VACCINE INSTITUTE Washington

Long Life? It's Not So Good