For 1st time since 1993, U.S. life expectancy drops

"Experts are puzzled." This from the Washington Post -

“We’re seeing the ramifications of the increase in obesity,” said Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “And we’re seeing that in an increase in heart disease.”

The number of unintentional injuries — which include overdoses from drugs, alcohol and other chemicals, as well as motor vehicle crashes and other accidents — climbed to more than 146,000 in 2015 from slightly more than 136,000 in 2014. Public health authorities have been grappling with an epidemic of overdoses from prescription narcotics, heroin and fentanyl in recent years. Xu said overdose statistics were not yet ready to be released to the public.

Deaths from suicide, the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States, rose to 44,193 from 42,773 in 2014.

Several experts pointed out that other Western nations are not seeing similar rises in mortality, suggesting an urgency to determine what is unique about health, health care and socioeconomic conditions in the United States.

“Mortality rates in middle age have totally flat­lined in the U.S. for people in their 30s and 40s and 50s, or have been increasing,” Case said. “What we really need to do is find out why we have stopped making progress against heart disease. And I don’t have the answer to that.”

 

Comments

[Sweat]

This bad life expectancy news is definitely unexpected !

[Sweat]

Wait a minute ! How can this possibly be ? I thought that Barry O. said that the great Obamacare was going to improve our health in this country. I'm shocked..............SHOCKED I tell you ! ! !