Does Your Life Expectancy Match the Numbers From Iceland?

Just back from a two week sojourn in Iceland. The weather was wonderful, as far as I was concerned, averaging about 10 degrees Celsius during our stay. The food was horrendous - no taste to it all and most things served up with an overdose of butter and/or cream. Since they manage to have life expectancy figures (2004) of 79.4 years for men and 83 years for women, some of the very highest in Europe, I think the resident population must eat quite differently than they feed their country's visitors.
On matters related, allow me to pass on two nuggets of info regarding our own life expectancies and the betterment thereof. The first is for Canucks, in particular. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and there will be walks and runs galore to raise awareness and research funds. If you're interested in getting a head start on helping to raise those funds, take a stroll between September 21st and September 27th to your nearest Shoppers' Drug Mart, anywhere across this whole wonderful country of ours and buy the October copy of Canadian Living magazine. The good folks at the zine will donate 50 cents to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
If you want an informative look into your own life expectancy and what you can do to stretch it out a little longer, head over to www.realage.com and take their "Real Age Test" to see how your real age compares with your calendar age. Don't start it unless you have a half hour time slot free, but if you do, give it a shot. You've got nothing to lose, and maybe something great to gain. Once you're finished the test, they'll rate you in each of their categories, like "habits", and let you know what you're already doing right as well as giving you some suggestions on what you could do even better. It's food for thought, if nothing else. I found out my "real age" was 10 years younger than my calendar age, and I came away with suggestion on a few changes to make that might help me bring it down even more. You don't have to sign up for anything. If you want, you can say 'no thanks' to any and all future contact, or you could decide to sign up for e-mail.
I'm not sure how the women and men of Iceland would do on the real age test, but their life expectancy figures seem to indicate they would all come out a decade or more under their calendar age. I do know they're involved in breast cancer awareness and research fund raising. They've really gotten into pink light illumination. It was in October 2000 when illumination of famous buildings or natural phenomena with pink light was started, including such places as the leaning tower of Pisa, and Niagara Falls. The following year The Icelandic Cancer Society started collaboration with Reykjavík Energy that financed the illumination with pink light of a prominent building in the capital area. In 2001, the largest church in Reykjavík was outlined in pink light and then mayor Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir was asked to turn on the lights. By 2004, the list of man-made structures and natural wonders illuminated by pink light in Iceland had grown into a list that sounded rather like our travel itinerary.
Take a minute or two, grab a cup of coffee and settle down in front of your monitor. Follow the two links above and give some thought to what you can do to protect your health and make your life expectancy look like you were born in Iceland.