Why Do Americans Live Lives So Short?

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:


Why Do Americans Live Lives So Short?
July 13, 2013

To protect our health, we’ve learned to have our ‘vital signs’ taken. But no visit to a doctor’s office can tell us the vital signs that determine where on earth people can expect to live the longest lives.

By Sam Pizzigati


Let’s talk life expectancy.

The stats first. They tell a clear story: Americans now live shorter lives than men and women in most of the rest of the developed world. And that gap is growing.

Back in 1990, shouts a new study published last week in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, the United States ranked just 20th on life expectancy among the world’s 34 industrial nations. The United States now ranks 27th — despite spending much more on health care than any other nation.

Americans, notes an editorial the journal ran to accompany the study, are losing ground globally “by every” health measure.

Why such poor performance? Media reports on last week’s new State of U.S. Health study hit all the usual suspects: poor diet, poor access to affordable health care, poor personal health habits, and just plain poverty. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/why-do-americans-live-lives-so-short/#sthash.oZ2VJ16f.dpuf

[leveymg]

1. Stress._Economic_insecurity._Funny_thing-we're_the_world's_most_economically_"productive"_workers.

And,_most_replaceable._Think_there_could_there_be_a_connection?

[snappyturtle]

2. Very good points. nt

[intaglio]

18. Actually not " ... The world's most economically productive workers"

current OECD figures give both Ireland and Norway as bring more productive per hour worked

http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=LEVEL

[leveymg]

48. Ireland is the repository of enormous Multinational affiliate funds, which makes the few workers

there (relatively) seem enormously productive. Norway has the world's best primary and secondary education system, so their productivity is not surprising. Americans are simply overworked and relatively underpaid.

[Laelth]

3. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[xchrom]

4. du rec.

[djean111]

5. A lot of the food we buy is full of crap. Especially cheaper food.

Plus our "health care" system is designed to make a profit by managing symptoms with expensive drugs, it is not designed to cure much, IMO.

[abelenkpe]

12. Expensive drugs, forever drugs and addictive drugs

Doctors prescribing addictive drugs like opiates and amphetamines. I have two cousins who were prescribed opiates, became addicted, spent years in and out of different programs trying to cure them of the addiction they were originally prescribed who ended up dying at young ages. Pretty sure doctors used to not be allowed to prescribe opiates. Our country has a huge problem with prescription drug abuse and addiction.

[Dustlawyer]

6. Plus, averaging in people with no health care into those that have it bring the numbers down.

What is the difference in life expectancy b/w Americans with health care and Americans without health care? Get the answer to that one and we could see what the cost is to those without and show Republicans and the corrupted Dems how many people their "Death Panel" is killing early!

[Nay]

17. Actually, they compared like with like, if you'll read the article. Middle-class Americans with

health ins were compared with middle-class of other nations w cradle-to-grave health care. The Americans still were way below in life expectancy. The study seems pretty thorough in its effort to tease out exactly which factors do and do not apply.

This is not to say that not having health care has no effect on life expectancy; I'm sure it does. But the difference in life expectancy between like groups indicates that there's more going on.

[mbperrin]

7. Insurance company profits are about a third of what we spend

on health "care." Of course, those profits generate no care at all.

[reteachinwi]

21. "The best health care system in the world"

ummm... well, no.

Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, Killing 225,000 People Every Year

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/30/doctors-death-part-one.aspx

[bhikkhu]

42. The ACA has capped profits at 15-20% about a year ago

...so make that more like a sixth of what we spend.

[mbperrin]

45. Okay. That's a 6th too much.

We need universal single payer and no insurance companies at all.

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. glued to tv + junky food...

Too sedentary, too disconnected from nature/real world.

[riverbendviewgal]

9. health care is for profit

There is no regulations for hospital or pharm costs. Monsanto is taking over food industry. Pollution like in fracking and oil spills Ade increasing. Wages are declining. It looks like america is going backward to the 18th century. There are even debtors prisons in Ohio. Oh yes, prisons are now being made more profit.

[7962]

10. Really not much of a difference in years from the top to the US though

And whats the first thing you notice about most of the countries that are above the US? First thing I noticed is that most of these countries dont have a lot of fat people. The next thing I noticed is that almost all of them are countries with small mostly "native" populations. Japan having the largest pop, i would estimate. We have many people from many countries and their habits come with them. Plenty of fat so-called "native" americans, yes. But Mexico passed us as the fattest country recently. As our #2 pop %, theres probably a lot of them that are also overweight. I think obesity is the worst indicator for longevity among any developed countries. Just my opinion, but it sure seems obvious looking at the list of countries above us. (I have many friends who just dont seem to care about their weight and it worries me. Already lost a couple due to weight-related illnesses)

[Scuba]

28. Can you please link to a source for ....

... not much of a difference in years from the top to the US

... most of these countries dont have a lot of fat people

... almost all of them are countries with small mostly "native" populations



Or is it all just your opinion?

[7962]

46. I looked at the life expectancy rate and then obesity,

and then looking at the list of countries to establish their "likely" pop. types.
The first shows numbers rounded to the nearest yr, which means there are a lot tied for each position. But you'll get the gist of it; Japan shows 83@#1, US is 79 Figures come from the WHO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

After that, mostly my opinion, which I said in the original post. But Mexico was just announced as passing the US as the fattest.
As far as the "native pop", again just my opinion based on looking at the above list. Most are small countries, and i'm surmising that most probably dont have a large immigrant-based population. I did see a couple that I know have larger demo differences, i.e. France and England.

[Scuba]

47. Thanks.

[DaveJ]

11. The root cause is lack of desire to live our lack of decent lifestyles.

We Americans are pretty much taught to believe life = education, work, retirement (possibly), then death.

Retirement only come to the few who perform steps 1-2 perfectly.

Who would even want to live under such a regimented system? Other countries place lifestyle first, but not the U. S. of A.

No wonder almost half of us don't care whether we have decent healthcare or about much of anything else (conservatives).

[abelenkpe]

16. "Retirement only come to the few who perform steps 1-2 perfectly"

It's not enough to perform steps one and two perfectly. You also have to gamble on the very rigged stock market and win in order to retire. It is impossible to merely save for retirement. You must invest (gamble)

[Octafish]

13. Most can't afford to get the 'best health care in the world.'

Those that can, do live longer.

[cantbeserious]

14. One Word - Stress

eom

[demwing]

15. Guns and Butter

and HFCS, bacon, cheese, white bread. Plus "For-Profit" health care, TV, cigarettes, and guns.

Yeah, guns deserves a double shout out on this list.

In short all the things that makes us fat, lazy, angry, and armed.

[Nay]

19. It would be interesting to see what the statistics would look like with all homicides taken

out of the equation (if they are even in there in the first place). I don't think it would account for much of the difference, but it would be interesting.

Most of those other countries that are doing well also have citizens who eat bacon, cheese, and white bread -- Scandinavian countries, France and Italy, etc., so I don't think that's much of a contributor. However, countries like France seriously regulate what goes into French bread (for example): flour, water, salt, yeast. Period. Our breads and other 'foods' have all kinds of dough and flavor enhancers, preservatives, etc., that may affect health outcomes. I doubt this study gets down into those kinds of weeds, though, and that's a shame.

People in Europe, I believe, also smoke a lot more than Americans do.

[LisaLynne]

20. You bring up some very interesting points.

I wonder if we have trended towards more preservatives due to the distances that our food is shipped.

And yeah, taking out homicides would be extremely interesting. Maybe we're just killing each other more. :/

[demwing]

22. not just food and weapons, but anger and laziness

we watch too much TV and glorify anger and outrage.

Overweight + sedentary + prone to anger = very bad for the heart.

[LisaLynne]

25. And erroded labor laws that provide no ...

guarantee of vacation time or sick leave. That adds to stress in a major way.

[Nay]

29. Yeah, they don't say what they do (if anything) with gun deaths. From a certain perspective,

gun deaths are going to be a given, because of the 2nd Amendment and a total unwillingness to seriously regulate guns. So, if we're going to try to figure out exactly what's killing us off so much earlier, they need to control for that factor and see if there's anything else going on. Personally, I don't think gun deaths, as horrible as they are, are a major factor in the longevity statistics.

I do think lifelong stress over how you are going to make it through the day, pay all your bills, keep your job and deal with long hours at work, is a factor. I also think that societal food habits have a lot to do with it. I see so many people trapped in the web of getting home from work at 7, and bringing fast food home, or just opening a package of Hamburger Helper to make dinner. I also see adults giving children chicken nuggets and french fries every day because 'they won't eat anything else!' Then we wonder why the country produces adults who eat crap for every meal! It's not only the parents' fault, of course -- the US has a couple of generations of adults who can't or won't cook, and who are themselves addicted to the easy 'foods' that manufacturers produce and push onto society. We also have a big libertarian-type contingent that is always hollering "I want my FREEDOM to eat whatever I want!!!" and is encouraged by food manufacturers.

I have an interest in the subject of adult picky eaters -- a relative is one (she 'can't' eat anything but plain chicken, french fries, corn, mac n cheese, candy and cookies) -- and just some superficial research revealed that this disorder is confined to the US and the UK almost exclusively. Doctors in the 3rd world say there is no such thing there. Europeans don't have the problem, either. Now, what do the US and the UK have in common? Cultures that promote crappy manufactured food. When you raise children on this stuff, real food becomes icky. France avoids this problem by having a real food culture, not a food culture dictated by what the mfgs want to sell. Children's menus are exactly what adults eat, no exceptions, and if you don't eat it, you go hungry until the next meal. You don't get a PBJ sandwich to tide you over. Plus, in France, you get 3 meals a day only -- no noshing all day long, 3 snacks, etc. IMHO, the whole idea that you have to have 3 meals and 3 snacks because otherwise your metabolism will slow down is horseshit. That idea was promoted so the mfgs could sell more food items, because most people would eat a full meal AND add snacks. And we wonder why we got fat?

[LisaLynne]

32. More good points.

I do think that stress is a major, major factor. We work more and more, for less, at less satisfying jobs, but are continually told we are lazy and our laziness is why we are not better off financially. And we are constantly sold on the fact that we are replaceable -- there is this long line of people just waiting to do our job, so we'd better just be grateful. That's just no way to go through life. At least, not a healthy way.

One thing I've noticed is that when you eat foods with a lot of salt, you end up needing to taste that salt in order to feel satisfied. However, I was in the hospital for a week and got like hardly any salt and after that, a lot of prepackaged food and food at restaurants tasted way too salty to me. But you get accustomed to it, so the actual flavors of foods are masked. After eating a low-salt diet for a while, a baked potato tasted too rich to me!

The only thing I will say is that if you really read about the three meals, three snack thing is that what is actually being suggested are really, really SMALL meals and tiny snacks. It's about taking your 2000 calories (or whatever) and spreading it out instead of two or three big meals -- which unfortunately is how I tend to eat just due to time. However, I think a lot of people took that suggestion (and were encouraged by food manufacturers) and are eating closer to six regular meals a day which is too much, obviously.

[closeupready]

34. I agree with everything you've said in this thread.

Which means, of course, you're going to be attacked soon for being a 'food fascist', puritan, etc. (can't remember all the labels ATM).

[Nay]

40. Yeah, I know. I've already been called a few names like that. Thanks for the support!

What hacks me off the most is that the name-callers refuse to realize that we are going to have SOME KIND of a food culture that directs us to eat a certain way, and why the hell does it have to be a food culture determined by manufacturers' desire for the greatest profit? Why can't we determine that for ourselves, like the French do, and make laws favoring real food?

As it is now, even starting a small farm to grow healthy food and sell it is a major PITA for anyone who wants to do it; the govt, aided by mfg lobbyists, make sure that the hurdles are high for small farms and low for agribusiness. As 1-old-man says elsewhere in the thread, our life expectancies may be low because who wants to live with such obstructive nonsense in every area of life?

It's sad that we can't even have a discussion about fixing anything, because discussions are immediately cut off by "I want my freedum to do anything I want, no matter what!!!11!!!" with these statements coming mostly from the tea bag types who'll turn around and be right up in your uterus trying to regulate that.....

[MsLeopard]

23. Our health care system

is not in business to provide health care, it's in business to make money for the shareholders of the insurance companies. Providing health care is hardly a factor, making money is all that counts. If we took the profit out of our death care system we could turn around the statistics in no time, IMO.

[Nay]

30. Well, exactly. What we pay in health care costs does not generally go toward research to

make people healthier. Countries that run their own systems have a vested interest in better health outcomes for their citizens, because it is run for their citizens' benefit. Our system is run for the benefit of big corporations.

[datasuspect]

24. all of our food is poison

if you're poor, you probably live near a refinery, some kind of manufacturing plant, in the middle of tons of agricultural chemicals, or near a freeway.

[Silent3]

33. "Poison" that allows us to "only" live to an average age of 77?

What was the average life expectancy 100 years ago when very little processed food existed? 200 years ago when "all natural" was the only game in town?

Yes, most certainly there are bad things in the American diet, and bad choices made in how much to eat of what, but I get really tired of this over-the-top screeching about "poison" and "toxins", which is usually backed by a simplistic and intellectually lazy "natural = good, artificial = bad" view of the world -- as if there were some Golden Age of bodily perfection before those damned greedy corporations and evil technologists came along and ruined Paradise.

[datasuspect]

39. depends on what you call "living"

i guess.

all i see if fat people fingerfucking smartphones.

[Silent3]

43. Ah, so that's what being "poisoned" looks like.

Gotcha. Better to die at 45 of "consumption", having never touched a smartphone. Much more noble and human.

[1-Old-Man]

26. perhaps we no longer choose to "prolong the misery"

Its our chemical-ridden food, its the stress of avoiding the economic predation that governs every day of our lives, it is the near homicidal ignorance that we are surrounded by that chokes life right out of us. And non of it has to be this way.

[Nay]

31. Ain't that the truth. I'm one old woman, and I have to say I don't really give a hoot how

much longer I live because I can hardly stand to watch this shit any more. This country has turned into competing bands of thugs, preying on whatever innocent person they come across. And our 'culture' consists of whatever fads extract the most money out of us.

[mountain grammy]

36. I'm right there with ya, "old woman."

[Cryptoad]

27. A picture is worth a ,,,,,,,,,,,

[mountain grammy]

35. My father in law died at 90 and, in many cases, 90 is overrated.

That said, I recommend this OP and many of the comments.

I'm not as concerned with the length of life as the quality of that life, and the quality of life in America is dictated more and more by the "free market" and the religious fanatics trying to control government; and that's turning out to be very unhealthy for average, working folks.

[Neoma]

37. Pollution?

[FarCenter]

38. U.S. racial gap in life expectancy shrinks: study

(Reuters Health) - Whites in the United States have typically lived longer on average than blacks, but a new study released on Tuesday suggests that gap in life expectancy may be shrinking.

The shift appears to be because fewer African Americans are dying of AIDS and heart disease, but also because more whites are dying in early and mid-adulthood from unintentional injuries - mainly poisonings, including prescription drug overdoses, researchers said.

"For the most part, blacks are making small but important gains in terms of life expectancy," said Sam Harper of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, the lead author of the new report, published as a research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association. bit.ly/JjFzqx
...

Using national data including life expectancy tables from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he and his colleagues compared how long white and black men and women were expected to live as of 2003 and 2008.

Over that time, average lifespan increased among all groups. In men, it rose from 75.3 years to 76.2 for whites and from 68.8 to 70.8 for blacks. The greater increase among black men meant that the gap shrank from a difference of 6.5 years of expected life to 5.4 years.

Life expectancy also grew from 80.3 years to 81.2 in white women and from 75.7 to 77.5 in black women - a difference of 4.6 years in 2003 compared to 3.7 years in 2008.
...

In whites aged 20 to 54, accidental poisonings surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of death related to unintentional injury during the study period.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/05/us-usa-health-race-idUSBRE85417K20120605

[L0oniX]

41. We're being poisoned by corporations for profit.

[Akoto]

44. I would prefer to live a short life.

Without any intention of sounding humorous, my grandmother is 94 years old and in a nursing home, where she looks like a mummy laid out upon a bed. Everything has to be done for her, she can't leave, and she's in another time and place in her head as often as she's here.

Her body just will not give out, even though she's practically a skeleton. The organs are all charging along like horses. It kills me to see her like that, and I know that I'll never allow myself to be put into that position. As a disabled person with particular needs, especially true. As it happens, people with chronic pain do tend to live briefly in comparison, so perhaps I'll get that wish.

There's something to be said for living in the moment and well, if only fleetingly.

[woo me with science]

49. K&R