The creative and life path of the great French writer and philosopher Voltaire is an amazing example of active longevity. He lived 84 years and managed to keep the creative impulse of thought, colossal efficiency and optimism until the last years. The Moscow expert, the candidate of art criticism Elena Gonadievna Fokina.

At the decline of the seventh decade he wrote the famous philosophical life-affirming story "Candide, or Optimism". The hero confidently leaves the wonderful utopian world of Eldorado, choosing a different fate. Serene happiness and peace, he prefers the path of life, full of dangers, passions and adversity. The hero, whose thoughts are dear and close to Voltaire, calls for cultivating "our garden". The garden in this case symbolizes human life, which must be protected from evil, evil and negative passions. And the most important thing in life, according to Voltaire, is the ability to rejoice in happiness, light, every day lived, worship good in the surrounding world, and inside oneself.

Voltaire was convinced that the possibilities of the human mind are endless. And it is from the "mindset" that a person's health depends, not only spiritual, but also physical. His own body was for Voltaire a source of inexhaustible interest. He studied his laws, recorded observations and reached conclusions. At forty, he admitted that he had finally learned to understand his own body and now can overcome his illnesses and ailments. And there were a lot of them.

In his younger years, Voltaire was constantly harassed by excruciating nervous disorders. The tendency to depression too often knocked him out of the rhythm of life. From his youth Voltaire suffered cruel and frequent indigestion of the stomach.

In the second half of his life, his health was much better. Voltaire believed that progress was achieved through three rules, and followed them rigorously. First, the health of the body depends on the correct rhythm of life. A person needs a constant alternation of labor and rest. Moreover, not only rest, but also work should bring pleasure - "only work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and want".

Secondly, the human body requires regular exercise and training. They should be dosed, compiled taking into account health and age. For each period of life - their own load. "He who does not behave according to his age, always pays for it". It is interesting that Voltaire believed that only man himself can choose the measure of the loads for himself.

Thirdly, every person who thinks about his health should adhere to an individual diet. "What is useful is one, it is fatal for others", "You can not eat what you do not know, what you do not know".

Voltaire's reasonable views on health were much ahead of their time. The cause of most diseases, Voltaire saw in the immoderate gluttony and overeating. "Skilled cooks are killers, they poison whole families with their stew and snacks". The main meal of friendly feasts Voltaire considered interesting conversations and philosophical disputes. "The greatest pleasure an honest person can feel is to give pleasure to his friends". Moreover, pleasure was meant not only actions, but also presented with intelligent thoughts.

At the first sign of indisposition, Voltaire immediately went to bed, discarding all work, and starving. He refused food until he was fully recovered, allowing only a plentiful drink. When Voltaire was infected with a severe smallpox, which killed one-third of the population of Paris, he firmly decided to overcome the terrible disease. After the healing, he said that he owes his cure to eight servings of emetic, full of starvation and two hundred pints of lemonade. Lemonade was called water with the addition of a small amount of lemon juice.

To medicine, Voltaire was very skeptical, but he preferred not to fight with doctors, believing that the advice of sober doctors should not be neglected. Great mocker, Voltaire furiously ridiculed medical prejudices. He was amused by the belief that one must learn from animals, since animals are supposedly healthier than humans. "The longevity of deer and crows entered into proverbs, but let me be shown at least one deer or crow, who lived as much as the Marquis de Saint-Olhier," wrote Voltaire. The aforementioned Marquis lived for almost a hundred years. Perhaps he was too fond of life to die or allow himself a quiet inaction. Or maybe he really managed to realize the secret of life, which in his young years, at the dawn of his biography, defined as "the main thing is to get along with oneself" medicus. En.

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