The life expectancy calculator is rigged anyway. Who says (for example)
that you'll get an extra 4 years of life from exercise? Maybe you don't
live longer, but it just seems like longer, ala the old joke. I don't
even know of any epidemiological studies that show *that* big an effect
on the general population.

In any case, even if you find one, it still doesn't prove exercise
isn't just a marker for relative health and wealth, like driving a BMW.
People who exercise are healthier indeed, but which is cause and which
is effect? Does jogging prevent emphysema, or does emphyema prevent
jogging? Exercise makes you feel better, but never confuse a feeling of
righteousess with slower aging (he says on the day of the Pope's
funeral). Show me the randomized trial, if you think that exercise (or
prayer or whatever) makes you live longer.

Meanwhile, I'm going to assume that exercise is like Premarin and
vitamin E and being married and going to church and blah blah. They all
look great epidemiologically and the chemicals had a nice story for why
theyt should be good for you. But when studied prospectively to take
out the false statistical associations that arise from looking at
disparate groups, vitamin E and premarin flunked completely. So might
exercise and churchgoing. Of course I can't be sure of that, until the
trial is done.

Heretically Yrs (from the couch on Sunday),

SBH

Think how much longer you could survive if you were smarter!