I tell people that I need to do a lot of very unhealthy things to be healthy. I say it with a big half smile (only one side of my mouth is weak). When I am with family, they tell the visitor I have strange or alien DNA. All of this is accompanied by a long description of the action of acetylcholinesterase inhibition (putting people to sleep often deactivates the part of the brain used for making suggestions. If this isn't what is working, the fact that they are being frozen and sitting in relative darkness probably does it. Generally I hear this on my turf instead of someone else's -- which makes the discussion easier).

The longer they talk, the longer I talk. Every conceivable healthy thing which is suggested is countered by a detailed description and the accompanying science of why I do things the way I do them. Along with some comment about what current health gurus say and how there are a lot of people like me and how the gurus should change their tune.

If the "visitors" or "relatives" or whoever else doesn't "get" it, at least he/she/they aren't making suggestions by the time they leave -- probably at least because they are cold and not as perky in the dark. But sometimes I wonder if they think that because I am so normal and look so good, that they should be resting between activities. I have indeed found myself telling people that Mestinon, despite being the essence of the fountain of youth, is really only for ill people.