Life Expectancy In US Is Falling Amid Surges In Chronic Illness

[appalachiablue]

An Epidemic of Chronic Illness Is Killing Us Too Soon, Washington Post, Oct. 3, 2023. Ed. - The US is failing at a fundamental mission — keeping people alive. 🪦

- Chronic conditions thrive in a sink-or-swim culture, with the US government spending far less than peer countries on preventive medicine and social welfare generally. ⚖

After decades of progress, life expectancy — long regarded as a singular benchmark of a nation’s success — peaked in 2014 at 78.9 years, then drifted downward even before the coronavirus pandemic. Among wealthy nations, the US in recent decades went from the middle of the pack to being an outlier. And it continues to fall further and further behind.

A year-long Washington Post examination reveals that this erosion in life spans is deeper and broader than widely recognized, afflicting a far-reaching swath of the US.

While opioids and gun violence have rightly seized the public’s attention, stealing hundreds of thousands of lives, chronic diseases are the greatest threat, killing far more people between 35 and 64 every year, The Post’s analysis of mortality data found. Heart disease and cancer remained, even at the height of the pandemic, the leading causes of death for people 35 to 64. And many other conditions — private tragedies that unfold in tens of millions of U.S. households — have become more common, including diabetes and liver disease.

These chronic ailments are the primary reason American life expectancy has been poor compared with other nations.

Sickness and death are scarring entire communities in much of the country. The geographical footprint of early death is vast: In a quarter of the nation’s counties, mostly in the South and Midwest, working-age people are dying at a higher rate than 40 years ago, The Post found. The trail of death is so prevalent that a person could go from Virginia to Louisiana, and then up to Kansas, by traveling entirely within counties where death rates are higher than they were when Jimmy Carter was president.

This phenomenon is exacerbated by the country’s economic, political and racial divides. America is increasingly a country of haves and have-nots, measured not just by bank accounts and property values but also by vital signs and grave markers. Dying prematurely, The Post found, has become the most telling measure of the nation’s growing inequality. The mortality crisis did not flare overnight. It has developed over decades, with early deaths an extreme manifestation of an underlying deterioration of health and a failure of the health system to respond...

- Read More + US Map, Graphs, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2023/american-life-expectancy-dropping/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/10/02/takeaways-us-life-expectancy-crisis/

[c-rational]

1. K&R. nt

[BigmanPigman]

2. Diet has a large part in this big picture.

Look at photos from the 70s and 80s co pared to now. The average weight has gone up a lot. This brings on many, many health problems. We all end up paying $$$ for their unhealthy diets and lifestyle choices.

I remember watching Tony Bourdain in the Dubai in 2008 and they were already seeing how the Western Diet has led to the negative health of its citizens. Most countries see this dramatic change.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230618/Research-reveals-devastating-impact-of-Western-diet-on-human-health.aspx

[eppur_se_muova]

3. How much of that "choice" is forced by free-market forces run amok?

Crap food is cheaper. People working overtime, two jobs, etc. resort to fast food to save time and energy as well. And once you start down that path, it's hard to get off -- even after you realize it leads to a vicious circle. Being too tired to cook well leads to more tiredness, and downward you spiral. The only real hope for a way out is an infusion of prosperity, or unusually generous help from family or community. Neither are that widely available.

[appalachiablue]

4. Yes + This has been a major issue for decades. A single mom friend who's

well educated and very intelligent got on this direction years ago, and a few others we know. Lots of covenient, inexpensive fast food because overworked, tired, no time to shop and cook decent food. Hardheaded, just won't take in info. about the toxins and health impacts. Nothing you can do and it's too bad.

The 'Free market' has high costs..

[IbogaProject]

6. Bad preventive health

All actuarial estimates forecast savings with single payer the first year during the transition. This would be before preventative care starts to set in.
Another set of factors is fertilizer adds N, P & K but not minerals so our food has gotten less nutritious over the decades during the last 100 years. Then all the pollution in poor regions contributes to the variation in life expectancy. And finally the cumulative poison from nuclear waste, fossil fuel pollution and industrial pollution all of which end up in poor areas. The hollowing of the middle class since 1980 is another injury.

[appalachiablue]

7. All of this. So many Americans are uniformed as to these issues

and major changes in the last 40 years, particularly in terms of the food industry and health matters. These downward trends aren't emphasized enough in US media, obviously.

Plenty of people are also resistant to topics like this when you bring it up. They don't want to believe it, bother with changes or make the effort to learn about better ways of shopping, eating and maintaining good health. That's why government should be encouraging preventive health care in this country.

[appalachiablue]

5. Definitely, people are much larger than in the 70s, 80s from high calorie

processed food and more sedentary lifestyles. The photographs and clothing sizes reflect the pronounced change. Sad.

[Elessar Zappa]

8. Poverty in many respects causes obesity.

It’s all due to our have/have not culture. Wealthier people are thinner and more healthy while poor people are the opposite. I’m not about to put the blame on the victims of this system.