By The Survivors Club Staff
September 9, 2009

The Survivors Club is always on the lookout for new books with idea and tips for surviving and thriving in the face of every kind of adversity.

It's almost Fall and a bunch of books are hitting the shelves.  We want to take a moment to highlight some that offer compelling stories and valuable insight into surviving and thriving.

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 31, 2009

The Survivors Club welcomes three new members - three fisherman who survived eight harrowing days in the Gulf of Mexico unaware that the search had been called off after the Coast Guard scoured 80,000 square miles. 

Their survival diet: crackers, bubble gum, beer and three gallons of water.  And perhaps most important, according to a report on CNN, they kept going because of the power of prayer.

"They fought depression and hallucinations," Sail-World reported, "were spooked by schools of sharks and kept up their flagging strength by eating a noxious diet of gasoline-soaked crackers, hot beer and tainted

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 27, 2009

In the many remembrances of Ted Kennedy, one word resonates loudly and clearly for the many members of The Survivors Club.

Remembering his friend of 56 years in an essay in the Huffington Post, Ted Sorenson, the legendary advisor to President John Kennedy, writes: "Most people do not realize the extent to which (Ted) was, in the final analysis, a survivor. Both his oldest brother and his oldest sister were killed in plane crashes, but he survived the plane crash that broke his back and killed the pilot and co-pilot. As the younger brother of two assassinated young liberal heros, he received his own share of anonymous hate mail and death threats, but he survived to age 77. Both after his plane crash and his automobile accident, I sat at his bedside, wondering if he would have the strength to go on. But he did, and for this last year I had hoped that somehow he would come back again and go on to even greater heights as a champion of America's final effort to achieve accessible health care for all of its citizens."

Ted Kennedy was a remarkable example of resilience - the capacity to recover, reconstitute and rebuild after adversity.  Kennedy is also proof that survival isn't just about life and death.  Survival is about making the most of one's precious time on earth.  In this sense, Ted Kennedy may have lost his battle with brain cancer, but he survives in so many ways.

As Sorenson writes: "Clearly, Teddy Kennedy's own legacy will live on through his children, through the hundreds of important pieces of legislation that he authored, through the brilliant staff that he assembled and dispersed to other important roles around the country, and through the books, articles and speeches he has produced in his 46 years as a United States Senator. Above all, his legacy will live on through the millions of friends he has made and nurtured over the years, both in and out of politics, both in and out of the United States, among members of many races, religions and nationalities. Among all those friends for whom he did so much good, some will mourn and miss him more than others. I am among those who will miss him most."

The Survivors Club extends its deepest sympathies to the Kennedy family, friends, staff, the people of Massachusetts and all those who mourn his loss.

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 25, 2009

Americans with the most healthful behavior live in Vermont, according to a new study from Gallup, the leading polling company.  Kentucky ranked as the worst state in practicing healthful habits that include eating right, exercising and not smoking.

The midyear results from Gallup find the nation as a whole dropping substantially on the so-called Healthy Behavior Index, from 63.7 in 2008 to 62.6 in the first half of 2009.

Gallup says that clear healthful behavior patterns emerge on a map of the US with Western, Mountain, and Northeastern states -- as well as Florida -- performing the best while states in the South and Midwest performing the worst.

How healthy is your state?

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 25, 2009

The number of Americans who are "suffering" has increased by 3 million over the past year, according to a new study from Gallup, a leading company that studies human nature and behavior.  In other words, there are three million new members of the Survivors Club -- three million men, women and children who describe themselves as suffering in their current lives with low expectations for the future.

The Gallup Poll asks at least 1,000 Americans each day to evaluate their current lives as well as their expectations of where they will be in five years.  The increase in "suffering" has been accompanied by declines in the percentage of Americans who are "thriving."

The index bottomed out in the fourth quarter of 2008 as the nation's economic woes came to the forefront. And while there was a considerable rebound in well-being as the new year and the run up to the presidential inauguration got underway, the "January-effect" seems to have been short lived as February and March of 2009 has seen the index approach previous lows.

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 20, 2009

The sole survivor of a February boating accident that killed two NFL players and a former college player says he's haunted every day by "survivor's guilt" and can't explain why he was only one who survived the ordeal.

"I still ask every day, 'Why me?'" says Nick Schuyler, the 24-year-old sole survivor of a boating accident that took the lives of two NFL players and a former college player. 

By The Survivors Club
August 19, 2009

Americans are living nearly three months longer... and that means life expectancy in the United States has reached an all time high, according to new information from the National Center for Health Statistics.

The good news is due largely to falling death rates from heart disease, cancer and HIV.  Average life expectancy for babies born in 2007 is nearly three months greater than for children born in 2006.  Over the past decade, life expectancy in the US has increased almost one and a half years.

Men and women are living longer, according to the new data, but women still outlast men by an average of five years.  (In 2007, average life expectancy was 80.4 years for women and 75.3 years for men).  Twenty years ago, the survival gap was much greater: Women outlived men by nearly eight years.

The USA still trails some 30 countries in life expectancy.  Japan has the longest life expectancy — 83 years for children born in 2007 -- according to the World Health Organization.

“The most noteworthy aspect about all this is not just that people are living longer but living better,” Dr. Gary Kennedy tells The New York Times.  Kennedy is director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y.  “At the same time, people are living a longer active lifespan. Seniors are healthier, more active and economically better off than they ever have been.”

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 12, 2009

Don't worry, be happy!  And you'll live little longer.  That's the conclusion of a new study from the University of Pittsburgh published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers studied more than 97,000 women and found that glass half-fullers had a nine per cent lower risk of developing heart disease and a 14 per cent lower risk of dying from any cause after eight years of follow-up.

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 11, 2009

If you want to slash your risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke and cancer by as much as 78 percent, here are the four golden rules, according to an important new study.

- Engage in regular physical activity (at least 3.5 hours per week)
- Eat a healthy diet (lots of fruits, vegetables, and grains and not much red meat)
- Don't smoke
- Avoid becoming obese (body mass index below 30)

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 10, 2009

A tiny premature baby declared dead by doctors was discovered to be alive at his own funeral wake when he began to cry in his own makeshift coffin.

The tot, born 16 weeks early, was placed in a cardboard box and handed over to his devastated parents after hospital staff tried to revive him.  Jose Alvarenga, his father, was saying goodbye to the infant when he suddenly began to cry.