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

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

#291

Post by naravara »

knicholes wrote: post #289
naravara wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people weight creeps up on them slowly. Losing a lot of weight quickly does require radical changes to diet, but not putting on the pounds in the first place is generally going to be a matter of burning an extra few hundred calories a day. Also, just not being sedentary all day is associated with a ton of positive health outcomes (possibly mental even more than physical) independent of body fat percentage. S…

Of course! Nobody can deny the panacea that is exercise. But it's still a widely misunderstood concept. Throughout many of these comments, people are claiming that the remedy to obesity is more exercise, but I hold that indeed a much larger component of combatting obesity is diet, not exercise.

I’d say on a population level exercise (as in more active, less sedentary lifestyles) will be a large factor. Though on an individual level you are right that diet will be the big thing.

Though population level there is also a lot of food policy and incentive structures we could alter to improve diets in general as well.

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

#293

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

wildrhythms wrote: post #255
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can walk/bike/bus to a store and then order uber back to carry all the bags.

Have you visited the U.S.? Suburban sprawl has made it a 1-2 hour walk one-way to a grocery store in many places (if you can walk there at all). In many places there isn't even a sidewalk.

I lived in CA, AZ, NV, NC, FL, NJ and NY, and visited a dozen of other states. There was always a large grocery store I could walk or bus to.

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

#295

Post by thedorkknight »

nigrioid wrote: post #51
peter422 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did anybody ever die unexpectedly before 2019?

Look into it. There are an awful lot of young athletes in peak physical condition that have collapsed on the field. A large number of Canadian doctors also died suddenly and unexpectedly.

Do we have hard data on the rate of sudden deaths? Otherwise it seems like there is a high chance of confirmation bias

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

#296

Post by epgui »

timr wrote: post #161
epgui wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only have a MSc, but with a more biomedical focus. I disagree with your overall impression and contextualization (even if you may be right on some of the finer points). I don’t agree with your assessment of Topol’s credibility, or on that of the relevance and quality of the Nature article.

You're obviously entitled to your opinion, but "I don't agree" is not a rebuttal to the specific claims I'm making about Al Aly's work. I'm not asking anyone to believe me because I have a certain degree; I'm pointing out real limitations and problems with the research. For example, there's absolutely nothing stopping Al Aly from using a real, consistent control (e.g. influenza, or even just the same negative control…

I know that, I just: 1) didn't have the energy to expend explaining in great detail why I thought you were wrong, and; 2) believed you were sufficiently credible and also incorrect that it was important enough for other people to voice their disagreement.

Lazy? Guilty as charged.

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

#297

Post by brippalcharrid »

Teever wrote: post #79
buscoquadnary wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I find the cognitive dissonance that goes into thinking that the vaccine for a virus must be causing the increased rate of effects from an actual infection to be fascinating.

If you're really that surprised by this, then you might want to look into topics like Original Antigenic Sin and vaccine-enhanced disease, especially antibody-dependant enhancement, which is the reason that previous vaccine candidates for coronaviruses (which would be a huge market, given how many old people have died from them each year, historically) haven't progressed beyond animal trials.

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

#298

Post by stouset »

odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #257
stouset wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of your opinion, the one bit of information provided by answering this question has little value other than to spark a pointless argument.

Not really and this is the problem. My quality of life decreased after my booster shot. Had severe reaction and my athletic performance dropped quite a bit afterwards never going back to the baseline pre-vaccine. Also having more heart palpitations and a decrease on VO2max. But apparently when I talk about this, I am either labelled anti-vaxx (even though I got the damn vaccine), a conspiracy crazy or people try to j…

Filing with the vaccine injury court and reporting this adverse event will have a far more effective impact than encouraging people to draw conclusions and take action based on selection-biased anecdata posted to Hacker News.

I did, of course, post my own anecdata. But it's much harder for people to choose whether or not to actually become infected by COVID than it is to decide whether or not to vaccinate.

You'll also note that we are now in fact having the pointless argument I predicted.

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

#299

Post by godelski »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #293
wildrhythms wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you visited the U.S.? Suburban sprawl has made it a 1-2 hour walk one-way to a grocery store in many places (if you can walk there at all). In many places there isn't even a sidewalk.

I lived in CA, AZ, NV, NC, FL, NJ and NY, and visited a dozen of other states. There was always a large grocery store I could walk or bus to.

Visit middle America. Specifically, visit The South. You'll find that many regions in The South do no have sidewalks. If you're also only visiting major cities then you are likely not to see these differences in architecture. It is easy to form a selection bias. No one here is saying that there aren't plenty of walkable cities in America, but we are saying that you'll find a substantial overlap between non-walkable cities and obesity. If you don't visit rural America, you won't see what we're discussing. Or don't attempt it.

Since most people are familiar with California I'll provide this reference which breaks it down by county. First graph is adults, second is low income children 5-19, and third graph is low income children 2-4. You will notice how the high obesity rates highly correlate with regions that are difficult to walk around in and are more rural.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Percentage-of-Adults-in-...

As another analysis, Not Just Bikes talks about this topic quite a lot. Here's his episode on strodes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM

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

#300

Post by tdeck »

nightski wrote: post #219
tdeck wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nice that the suburb you lived in is enjoyable to walk in, but that's not what the word "walkable" means in the context of a neighborhood. Walkable means you can accomplish daily tasks by using walking as a mode of transportation, not just a form of leisure. To address your main point, many US suburbs are not safe to walk in. Many suburbs lack things like sidewalks, crosswalks, and traffic signals for pedestrian…

That's too bad. In the area around where I live I have yet to encounter a suburb that doesn't have sidewalks! I understand what you meant by "walkability". I also don't think it's fun or practical. I tend to visit a lot of different stores, not just one or two. But I only go out shopping once a week or two, not daily. That sounds exhausting. I also hate super dense living being packed in like sardines with everyone e…

> But I only go out shopping once a week or two, not daily. That sounds exhausting.

It's not exhausting when it's just a couple of blocks away. I live about 5 a minute walk from our local grocery store, so it can be a nice break to pop over there for a couple things multiple times a week. There's no ceremony to it at all since there's no hassle of parking and it's easy to go when the store isn't crowded. An added benefit is that I can plan less and also waste less food, because I go to the store more often and get exactly what I need.

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