Live data from Hacker News

U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

statnews.com

31–40 of 327 posts

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#31

Obesity. Covid literally attacks obese people. And obese people also are at huge risk. I'm overweight and I was literally frightened during covid. Now I lift weights every day and work on my diet very hard. But we are literally ignoring the elephant (literally) in the room.

Low carb diet helped me with this. Calories in calories out, but if you have a lot of carbs you are going to get hungry when restricting the calories, whereas on a low carb diet I sometimes have to think hard as to whether I have had breakfast or not by 10am. Having woke up at 7am. "Oh I should probably eat something..." I think I have less than 50g of carbs a day, and probably 1500 calories but I don't track it too…

A lot of success in fixing your diet comes from experimenting and seeing what works for you. Low carb can help some people, while particular carb-heavy but satiating foods like oats or potatoes can help others. I don't think it's always clear-cut.

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#32

Obesity. Covid literally attacks obese people. And obese people also are at huge risk. I'm overweight and I was literally frightened during covid. Now I lift weights every day and work on my diet very hard. But we are literally ignoring the elephant (literally) in the room.

I'm always amazed that few people want to talk about this.

Early on in the pandemic, the NY Times acted shocked, shocked that 7 members of this family all died from COVID

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/nyregion/new-jersey-famil...

As you said, nobody dared mention the 7 elephants in the room. In fact, the Times said:

> "But the virus’s devastating toll on a single family is considered as rare as it is perplexing."

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#33
post #2

> The Covid-19 pandemic is the primary cause of the decline. However, increases in the number of people dying from overdoses and accidents is also a significant factor. True statement but it should be the other way around. Deaths by overdoses are much more impactful in terms of life expectancy decline, since they mostly kill younger people.

Good point, one could measure (est.) years lost rather than lives lost as a way to quantify that.

As it turns out quality adjusted life years has been the gold standard for measuring this before 2020. In a fit of hysteria we decided to toss that out the window (along with just about every single other bit of human knowledge).

Imagine what would have been different if we used the industry standard way if measuring this sort of thing…

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#34
post #4

From the article, “The Covid-19 pandemic is the primary cause of the decline.” And it is going to decline further. Covid affects multiple organ systems; the acute phase of the infection, it is safe to say at this point, is not the primary cause of concern. Covid-19 infection increases the chances of a stroke 4x and of heart failure more than 10x, among other disorders, within 12 months of infection. [1] A chief scien…

The effects are also compounding with each re-infection.

Source?

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#35
post #2

> The Covid-19 pandemic is the primary cause of the decline. However, increases in the number of people dying from overdoses and accidents is also a significant factor. True statement but it should be the other way around. Deaths by overdoses are much more impactful in terms of life expectancy decline, since they mostly kill younger people.

Careful there; that could lead to a conversation about the cost/benefits of how lockdowns were implemented. Then we'd have to look at how younger generations were sacrificed for the older. Then we might have to talk about how that happens in many areas, from wealth distribution to climate change policy, from environmental policy to corporate accountability. Not to mention the wars. Can't be letting that type of discu…

The fact this is downvoted shows what an incredibly privileged life some people live. It’s easy to be all for lockdowns and shit when you own a home and make more than a quarter million dollars a year at your cushy work from home job. Meanwhile all the peasants expendable service workers out there had to keep on keeping on.

It requires an incredible amount of privilege to buy into the Covid narrative that got sold to people.

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#36

Obesity. Covid literally attacks obese people. And obese people also are at huge risk. I'm overweight and I was literally frightened during covid. Now I lift weights every day and work on my diet very hard. But we are literally ignoring the elephant (literally) in the room.

The big wake up call for me was a few years earlier. I had just hit 130Kg (285+ pounds) and I had just had enough of it all! By the time I had COVID earlier this year I was down to around 90Kg (198 pounds) - I get the feeling that helped out immensely compared with how I used to be. Vaccines also did their part combined with the lessening impacts of the various variants. The other thing that got brought to my attenti…

The rise in obesity is likely environmental. It's entirely possible that microplastics or PFAS (or whatever contaminant you want to point the finger at) causes obesity, which then causes health issues.

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#37

Obesity. Covid literally attacks obese people. And obese people also are at huge risk. I'm overweight and I was literally frightened during covid. Now I lift weights every day and work on my diet very hard. But we are literally ignoring the elephant (literally) in the room.

The good news is that maybe we got it backwards, in at least some of the cases[1]: > Higher fasting insulin and higher c-reactive protein confound the association between BMI and the risk of all-cause mortality. The increase in mortality that has been attributed to higher BMI is more likely due to hyperinsulinemia and inflammation rather than obesity. [1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-022-01211-2

> The increase in mortality that has been attributed to higher BMI is more likely due to hyperinsulinemia and inflammation rather than obesity

Not sure I understand this sentencen. Are they saying hyperinsulinemia and inflammation are independent of obesity? Both symptoms of ?

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#38

Obesity. Covid literally attacks obese people. And obese people also are at huge risk. I'm overweight and I was literally frightened during covid. Now I lift weights every day and work on my diet very hard. But we are literally ignoring the elephant (literally) in the room.

You used the word literally four times in your post, and even twice in one sentence. What's the fascination with this word? It seems to be used to add completely unneeded emphasis, rather than anything resembling its original definition.

it's a regionally-biased twitch filler word, like like, that happens to have a functional value of adding emphasis.

just filter it out. we all have certain ways that we bias our communications. I certainly do.

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low carb diet helped me with this. Calories in calories out, but if you have a lot of carbs you are going to get hungry when restricting the calories, whereas on a low carb diet I sometimes have to think hard as to whether I have had breakfast or not by 10am. Having woke up at 7am. "Oh I should probably eat something..." I think I have less than 50g of carbs a day, and probably 1500 calories but I don't track it too…

Quitting alcohol and going to OMAD (one meal a day) helped me lose 20 kilos in < 2 months. And I wasn’t even obese, that was straight from overweight to goal weight. Alcohol is an enormous contributor to weight for several different reasons. Plus, the weight you get as a drinker (the “hard” fat) is the worst kind of fat your body can have.

Wow, 20 kilos in less than 2 months seems like a heck of a lot. Any issues with gallstones?

I lost a nice bit of weight at the start of the pandemic when I stopped drinking (primarily a beer drinker). It is really surprising how much of an effect it can have.

Re: U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

#40
post #4

From the article, “The Covid-19 pandemic is the primary cause of the decline.” And it is going to decline further. Covid affects multiple organ systems; the acute phase of the infection, it is safe to say at this point, is not the primary cause of concern. Covid-19 infection increases the chances of a stroke 4x and of heart failure more than 10x, among other disorders, within 12 months of infection. [1] A chief scien…

[flagged]
Post reply on HN