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Photo by Reed Hutchinson UCLA
Photgraphic Services
Public Health Professor Lester Breslow leads a crowd of
emeriti on their weekly walk around the campus. |
octogenarian's seven habits
Mr. Public Health keeps fast pace
BY AJAY SINGH
UCLA Today Staff
If Lester Breslow were the nation’s health czar, his top
priority would be to educate Americans on maintaining good health.
For someone who recently entered his 90th year, Breslow, professor
emeritus of health services, knows a lot about healthy living. He
doesn’t smoke, drinks moderately and walks regularly —
2.5 miles five days a week, to be precise. He also eats regular
meals, never misses breakfast, gets at least seven hours of sleep
and maintains moderate weight.
Taken together, those are Breslow’s “seven habits
to be healthy.” He believes his simple tips can effectively
combat one of the worst threats to the nation’s well-being
— obesity — if only health officials make it their priority
to maintain people’s health instead of trying to cure disease.
Indeed, the maintenance of public health has been Breslow’s
lifelong campaign. The federal government, he said, “should
be doing more to assure people good conditions for life. Some people
call such policies socialistic. I call them sensible.” But
then he laughed, adding: “Oh, I’ve only been fighting
for that for 62 years.”
It’s been no armchair crusade either. For 27 years, Breslow
was a noted public health official, mostly in California, where
he became known as “Mr. Public Health.” He began promoting
his ideas for healthy living decades before they became popular.
He was director of the state’s public health department when
Ronald Reagan became governor. “He wanted to appoint his own
director and I was asked to step aside,” recalled Breslow.
“I was already in a lot of fights with hospitals, but despite
all the differences, people insisted I stay on.” But realizing
he’d never see eye to eye with Reagan, Breslow stepped down
and joined UCLA, where he became dean of the School of Public Health.
He has been a professor emeritus since 1980.
At an age where many emeriti are compelled to stay home, Breslow
still comes to campus four days a week, working in a cramped office
at the public health school. His desk is littered with project reports
and papers on his pet subject — public health maintenance.
On April 19, he’ll take a little time off from work to join
in the school’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of the
Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture and Dinner, at which he will
speak on “The Third Revolution in Health: Implications for
Public Health.”
Every Tuesday at 9 a.m., he leads about a dozen emeriti on a 30-minute
walk around campus. “This is for people who never thought
about exercising or never got around to it,” he said. “Thirty
minutes a week isn’t going to do anyone much good, but it’s
a start.”
Breslow’s face exudes a glow and a calmness that clearly
appear to be the result of his “seven habits to be healthy.”
An avid gardener, he also tends to about half a dozen fruit trees
and a range of vegetables and herbs at home. So is that all it takes
to enjoy good health? Breslow offers one final tip: “good
medical care when it’s needed.”
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