usually start gambling Friday afternoons about 1:00. That's when I steer my shopping cart toward the supermarket checkout line where I figure I can pay for my groceries the fastest. Oddly, the number of people in line isn't as significant a factor in choosing the right line as is the number of items other shoppers in that line have in their carts.

Even so, if I get behind someone whose credit card fails to register, or someone whose check has to be approved by the floor manager, I can watch people in other lines collect their groceries and head for the parking lot while I'm still standing in line.

Toll plazas are another place where my gambling instincts kick in. I scan the lines of cars and try to guess which lane will move the fastest. Sometimes I guess right, sometimes not. The point is that much of life is a gamble. You pay your money, and you take your chances.

The same applies to health. There are no guarantees in life. You can do everything "right" and still end up with some terminal illness. Unless Jesus comes first, we're all going to die. But putting into practice some simple, commonsense health practices can improve our chances of living life "to the full" promised by Jesus (John 10:10, NIV).

Adventists have traditionally put a high premium on health. While society in general ignores health prevention and focuses on quick fixes provided by remedial surgery and over-the-counter and prescription medications, Adventists have always maintained that preserving health is preferable to trying to restore health once it's been compromised.

Not surprisingly, Adventists have gained quite a positive reputation regarding health and disease prevention. For more than a century Adventist health-care institutions and professionals have ministered in communities large and small to reflect God's ministry of healing. Every year patients and their families who are touched by this ministry join the church.

Beyond that, Adventists, because of our heightened health consciousness, have been scrutinized by researchers to identify some of the diet and health practices that lead to optimum health. Results of a study now almost 30 years old led researchers to conclude that the Adventist lifestyle yields a significant decrease in the incidence of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. It's a well-known fact that Adventists, on average, live several years longer than society as a whole.

Now researchers from the Loma Linda University School of Public Health have embarked on a follow-up study to further identify some of the factors that lead to increased longevity among Adventists. The Adventist Health Study-2, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, seeks to enroll 125,000 Adventists in North America, aged 35 and older (30 and older for African-Americans). The study consists of an initial survey instrument about diet and health practices that can be completed in about two hours. Shorter follow-up surveys will be mailed about every two years during the 10 years of the study.

One of the greatest challenges of being involved in such a survey is to provide candid answers to the questions. Some might be tempted to respond according to the ideals of the Adventist health message. But this survey seeks to discover not what Adventists think they ought to eat, but what they, in fact, do eat. If you don't exercise, say so. If you eat meat, don't say you don't. No one is served by fudging the answers.

Register online for the Adventist Health Study-2 by visiting www.llu.edu/llu/health/form.html#other. To register by phone, call 1-877-700-7077, Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to midnight, Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Eastern time). Registration forms are also available at most Adventist churches. Questions? Call 1-800-247-1699, or visit: www.llu.edu/llu/health/.

Our honest responses to this survey instrument (I signed up more than a year ago) will help researchers worldwide validate some of the health principles almost taken for granted by many Adventists throughout North America and the world. While some Adventists adhere to the church's health principles with a spirit of legalistic fervor, most of us, faced with the reality of our own mortality, simply want to even the odds in this game of chance we call "life."