Can you believe good news for a change? I just read that deaths from heart disease, cancer and STROKE, the nation's three leading killers, all dropped in 2003.They were down between 2 and 5 percent.

The all-time high is 77.6 years, up from 77.3 the year before. In 1990. life expectancy was 75.4. Still, health officials are trying to draw attention to unhealthy behavior, such as smoking. This year, they chose to break out data on people 55 to 64. That's quite a few of us here.

I suppose we will all be on pills for life, however for many, many reason. As we head towards Medicare, maybe there will be a little help in prescription purchases and drug discount programs. Here is a little comic strip about our medications, I found in the paper.

1st lady: I see you are taking 21 meds, what are they suppose to prevent?

2nd lady: Well hun, it's a long list, they prevent me from saving money, paying my bills, buying food and going on vacations.

Now you see what we face on fixed incomes, even buying meds from Canada and the internet. I'm certainly trying to cut back, cut down on buying some of mine, when there is a co-pay for every one I use. It gets expensive in the long run.