It’s remarkable how much of the article narrates a tale of opioids and suicide, whereas the obvious elephant in the room seems the be the poor, or lack thereof of a public health care system.
U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
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Re: U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
#12Can someone explain the link of the lowered life expectancy to flu and pneumonia? I thought that these were deceases that were only fatal for people with compromised immunity.
Wow, maybe (not being sarcastic) eating a monocultured food diet and living as sedate humans in sterile environments has a bigger effect on our immune systems than we'd like. This must have been measured? Compare immunity in farmers vs office workers or some such?
Re: U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
#13This seems like a case of temporary circumstances and statistical creating a doomsday picture. The temporary circumstances seem to be the suicide rate brought on by the still recovering economy and glib life prospects. Partly related to this is a new deadly drug that is gaining popularity.
Add to this the statistical factors like the anti smoking and healthy living campaigns hitting their peak effect a few decades after improvents in modern science hit their peak effectiveness.
To me, it seems like life exectancy will improve again as the economy improves and governments find ways to fight fentynal.
Improving life expectancy maked great advancements in healthcare and sanitaion and lifestyle in the past. As these improvements seem to have peaked I dont know that life expectany is still a good indicator of progress in rich nations
Re: U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
#14If you think it's bad now, wait until the last "A Song of Ice and Fire" book comes out. Life expectancy will plummet as people discover they have literally nothing to live for anymore.
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Re: U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
#15Can someone explain the link of the lowered life expectancy to flu and pneumonia? I thought that these were deceases that were only fatal for people with compromised immunity.
No, they are not. They are likely to be much more dangerous for those groups, but the flu or pneumonia can kill anyone.
Some strains of the flu are believed to be more deadly to the "strong" patients, due to a phenomena known as "cytokine storm" - where the strong immune system response directly contributes to death.
Re: U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
#16It’s remarkable how much of the article narrates a tale of opioids and suicide, whereas the obvious elephant in the room seems the be the poor, or lack thereof of a public health care system.
I dont disagree that public healthcare would improve life expectancy but it wouldn't cause a decrease in life expectancy as healthcare is not any less accessible today than in the past
Re: U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
#17Can someone explain the link of the lowered life expectancy to flu and pneumonia? I thought that these were deceases that were only fatal for people with compromised immunity.
I'd guess that drug addicts having compromised immune systems are increasing deaths from these.
Re: U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
#18The decline is mostly the product of an increase in drug overdose deaths and suicides (likely also related to drug abuse[1]). Cancer mortality is continuing to decline which is nice to hear: "Earlier this century, the steady and robust decline in heart-disease deaths more than offset the rising number from drugs and suicide, Dr. Anderson said. Now, “those declines aren’t there anymore,” he said, and the drug and suic…
> The decline is mostly the product of an increase in drug overdose and suicides
The US is pretty much also the only country where suicides are increasing.
Re: U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
#19I would like to see this correlated to access to "health care", which need not necessarily translate to improved health.
From personal experience, I have a strong suspicion that much of this "care" is actually harming people. In particular I am concerned about over-prescription of anti-pain/anxiety/depressant medications and incorrect dietary modifications (eg, to eat a low-fat/salt/cholesterol diet).
EDIT:
Very roughly, there is a link to "obamacare". From TFA:
>"The U.S. has lost three-tenths of a year in life expectancy since 2014, a stunning reversal for a developed nation, and lags far behind other wealthy nations."
>"The ACA's major provisions came into force in 2014. By 2016, the uninsured share of the population had roughly halved, with estimates ranging from 20 to 24 million additional people covered during 2016." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Afforda...
Re: U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further
#20(On edit: below comment is retracted. At least for 2015 to 2016, the decline is not attributable to Simpson's paradox. See Table 4 in the CDC report linked below.)
This is either incompetence or maliciousness on behalf of the CDC, WSJ, or both. Life expectancy in the US is falling, but it's only falling due to Simpson's Paradox [1].
The CDC's own data [2] shows life expectancy increasing for all genders and races except black men, which decreased marginally over the last few years.
The primary reason life expectancy is falling is due to changes in the racial composition of the population, not because of opioids or suicide.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox
[2]: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr67/nvsr67_05.pdf (see Figure 5)