Not many 78-year-olds can say they take no prescription medicine. Very few have been tested negative for hypertension or cardiovascular disease, and a rare handful can say they feel great, with no aches or pains.
Bud Hauslein may have all that going for him, but he’s not about to announce it.
The retired trial and appellate lawyer and La Jolla resident doesn’t think tooting his own horn is the best way to get his message across. Instead, last year he wrote and published a book, “Playing the Odds: Live to Your Life Expectancy and More,” and plans to donate a copy to every public library in the nation.
“They’d get bored if I talked about myself,” he said about his book’s audience and those who attended his last book lecture at the Rancho Santa Fe Library in July. “They want to hear what I can do for them.”
He plans to tell community members just that when he discusses his book on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at the La Jolla Riford Library, 7555 Draper Ave. But giving away too much of his story ahead of time would ruin the surprise, the author asserted.
Hauslein’s 255-page compilation is unusual because, unlike other self-help books in which the author claims he or she can help take 10 years off people’s lives or professes to have the cure for certain health problems, his book relays seven years of research from medical journals, outlining risk factors for life-threatening illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, high blood pressure and adult diabetes, he said.
It then explores the “odds” that play into contracting these illnesses, and approaches methods of living to one’s life expectancy as a game of chance, with factors that a person can control and those he/she cannot.
Family genetics, or genetic heritability, is one of those factors and ” although he probably wouldn’t mention it ” Hauselein was blessed with an excellent set of these. His mother lived to age 93 and his grandmother to 100.
And what was the key to their success?
“My grandmother ate meat, potatoes and gravy every day of her life,” Hauslein said, pausing for emphasis.
He believes genetics have a lot to do with how long people live, and what types of illnesses or health problems they develop, but admits a lot of what plays into life span is unpredictable.
Hauslein’s wife, whom he included in his book’s “about the author” photo, recently had knee surgery. When he asked the doctor why she ” who never ran ” had bad knees, while he, on the other hand, who had run marathons for five years, was perfectly fine, the doctor replied, “Genetics.”
He won’t hesitate to mention that his book doesn’t have all the answers. Medical experts haven’t found the cure for many ailments and he’s not marketing a book containing any health secrets, he said.
But he does have one that he lives by, and so far, it appears as if it’s working. The thing is, he doesn’t usually share it with people.
Hauslein, who has openly admitted that he despises golf, treads water in his pool for about an hour every day, he said. In his book, he mentions exercising as an important way to reduce the risk of obesity and diabetes, but doesn’t push this during his talk.
“Exercise is the key,” he said. “But to the general public, it’s like a curse word. Even the government has changed it to ‘physical activity.'”
Hauslein doesn’t try to sway his audience into doing things they aren’t comfortable with – like going out jogging – if they never have before, but tries to educate them on all factors affecting their health so they can make their own decisions, without bringing himself into the mix.
Ã…s he rattles off statistics, Hauslein jumps to his feet to demonstrate a point and jokes about how his wife is still putting up with his dry humor and tendency to tease.
Even if he never mentioned it, his youthful energy and enthusiasm rings clear in all that he does.
And that alone is enough to make anyone want to hear what he has to say.
Hauslein’s talk begins at 7 p.m. at the library. For information, call (858) 552-1657.
