IT was good to read the views expressed by various officers, paid and voluntary, in the articles about the "Care of the Elderly Time Bomb" (The Press, January 11).

They seem to appreciate the importance of people remaining independent for as long as possible, and that keeping healthy is the best way of doing this.

The problem is that, as far as I know, no one has yet discovered a way of putting an old head on young shoulders. It simply never occurs to many young people that to eat good food and to exercise is advice which actually applies to them.

I believe that as we approach each stage of life we become emotionally prepared for it, and there would be something wrong with a young person were they to think much about what will happen to them in old age.

I would neither expect nor ask them to do that, but what I do suggest is that they use their intellect to do what their emotions cannot do.

Does it not seem reasonable that healthy living might well protect them from some of the horrors which might deprive them of a happy and healthy old age?

Joyce McDougald, North Parade, York.