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Gene Stone has in many ways been working on his book, “The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick,” for several years. As a health journalist, he says he was one “of those people who kept getting sick.”

At the same time, Stone was meeting various people who never got sick – so he wondered if he should spend less time interviewing doctors and more time talking to these people who managed to stay sniffle-free.

In his book, Stone highlights the secrets of 25 people who swear their personal antidotes keep them off medicine and living a long life. Some of these secrets make sense, while others sound a little bizarre. We spoke with Stone,and this is what he had to say.

Hey, who knows – maybe you will discover a new approach to staying healthy.

Q: Which secret surprised you the most?
A: Many of the secrets were surprising, but cold showers was the oddest of all--not just because it sounds so strange – but also because there’s a large body of research that validates its efficacy (most of it, unsurprisingly, coming from cold Northern Europe).

Q: What was the craziest health secret you heard?
A: I heard many weird secrets--yet you never know; sometimes the weirdest ideas can turn out to be helpful--think of the way this country’s attitude toward acupuncture has changed. I did run into a numerologist who swore her secret was that her last name had six letters in it, and so does the word health, and her lucky number was six--and she never got sick.

Q: Which one made the most sense?
A: I think they all make sense! Because if the secret works for the person who swears by it, how can I say it doesn’t?

Q: Why do you think other people should read your book?
A: We all know this country has a health crisis. People are overweight, dependent on prescription drugs, spending too much money on health care, and so on. One of the primary goals of my book is to get people to take more responsibility for their own health. Be proactive! Find your own secret. Borrow one of the secrets in the book! But do something! I’d like to think that people who read this book and really think about what it says will lead healthier lives. Who doesn’t want to be someone who never gets sick?

Q: Which health secret did you adopt after writing this book?
A: Chewing raw garlic -- not something that I had ever thought about before writing the book, but now I do it every time I think I might be coming down with a cold--and it works!!!