Apparently rich people live longer than poor people. According to experts, this is because they save an extra Dhs100,000 a year which they can spend on better health insurance and, therefore, better healthcare, if they need medical attention, and to even undergo the routine medical examinations that poor people never do. I suppose they can spend more on finding donors too if the need were to arise.

It’s true that rich people do have the chance to save a lot more than the average person but I don’t think it’s entirely true that they live longer than those who are less fortunate than themselves since there are so many stories of poor people in some developing countries, especially the Far East, living to be more than 100 years old. I think it has something to do with living in the mountains where the air and water are fresh and eating food fresh off the land.

What does shorten someone’s life is worry and stress and both the rich and the poor have their own share of what stresses them out and worries them. Having said that, though, many people who live day to day and have little or no money, sometimes have no worries at all because they are happy with their lives as it is and like to go with the flow. Rich people, on the other hand, don’t like to go with the flow. They plan and plan and if that plan does not go according to plan, they worry and stress themselves out. Plus, there are some terminal illnesses from which even the rich cannot escape.

I suppose that’s when they start to drink too much coffee. But did you know that drinking too much coffee can increase your risk of getting dementia? I didn’t and frankly I’m getting very confused by all these studies into our everyday food items. Sometimes they are good for us and sometimes they are not. Apparently, one study suggested that coffee was good for reducing the risk of strokes and another said drinking too much of it raised your blood pressure. So to all researchers out there, please tell us which one it is.

And the same goes for drinking water. One critic of the ‘8 glasses a day’ advice suggested that this was merely a phrase made up by water bottling companies in order to sell more water. That study suggested that there is no real scientific evidence that one should drink 8 glasses of water a day since we get some of that quota from our daily foods and drinks. Moreover, no one has really told us how many glasses of water is too much because drinking too much is bad for us as well. Apparently we can drown the cells in our body by over-drinking but no one has told us what the definition of too much water is.

True that too much of anything is bad for our health. That does include tea, coffee, water and even watching too much television. We’ve known this for a very long time anyway because too much TV, especially the wrong kind of programming at the wrong time of day, can play havoc with your mind. If you watch a horror movie late at night, and that’s when most mainstream channels broadcast horror movies, I guarantee that if the movie is scary enough you will be scared stiff when the lights go out.

Furthermore, too much television can actually take you away from your important tasks and that’s why children’s TV time should be limited. But it seems that too much television can also increase your chances of snoring at night. I don’t know how snoring relates to watching the box; I always thought it was a sinus, obesity or smoking related problem. So everyone should limit their time in front of the television.

Another limit should also be set on taking calls and checking work related emails after the working day is done. I know from experience that such communiques can only cause you stress, headaches and exhaustion. As soon as you hear that ping or ring, the chances are that your heart starts to race and your stomach begins to churn at the sheer anxiety of what that email or phone might be about because, let’s face it, if it comes after hours, it can only be urgent.