The life expectancy in the US drops; but this is for the third year that it has gone down. Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains in this video that there are three factors that are mainly responsible for this: suicides have increased significantly; alcohol abuse has gone up resulting in the deadly liver disease, cirrhosis of the liver. This causes premature deaths. The third cause is drug overdoses that often result in death. There are also differences of life expectancy in different age groups.
Here is the breakdown of life expectancy in the US and in other countries
- For people aged above 65 years there is no change of life expectancy.
- Younger people and middle-aged people experienced the highest loss of life expectancy in the past 3 years. The causes of deaths in this age group were accidental deaths and complications from chronic diseases. These were heart diseases, kidney disease, diabetes and strokes. These are linked to lifestyle choices and obesity. They are not easy to medicate with drugs. Here is a review of the data by the CDC.
- The life expectancy in the US in 2016 was 78.69 years. In other countries like Japan it is 80.5 years, in Switzerland 81.3, in Singapore 80.0 years, in Australia 80.9. Canada had a life expectancy of 82.30 in 2016. The US was the only country in the world where the life expectancy has declined.
Discussion of discrepancy between the US and other developed countries
In the other countries guns are not easily obtainable, so shooting deaths are less common. This has become a problem in the US in the past few decades and the politicians in the US have no appetite to change the gun laws. This goes against the wishes of the population who want automatic guns outlawed.
A poor lifestyle with the consumption of processed food and junk foods is another big factor that leads to chronic illnesses like obesity; type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and liver cirrhosis. But it also leads to cardiovascular disease with deaths from heart attacks and strokes.
People need to cut out added refined sugar, processed food and processed red meat. As a result they will lose weight, have less heart attacks, strokes and cancer. This leads to a longer life ex-expectancy.
Add to this alcohol consumption, which introduces another layer of mortality onto the other negative lifestyle factors.
Positive changes that would increase the life expectancy in the US
- Adopt a Mediterranean diet with lots of vegetables and less beef consumption
- Red meat has been shown to cause colorectal cancer. A reasonable suggestion is to cut down beef consumption to once per week and make this grass fed beef, without antibiotics from a feedlot.
- Absolutely cut out any processed red meat, which also plays a role in causing cancer.
- Start a regular exercise program. This will increase the healthy HDL cholesterol and lower the bad LDL cholesterol.
- Stay away from trans fats. They lead to hardening of the arteries and result in heart attacks and strokes.
- Eat more fish, seafood and take mercury-free high potency fish oil capsules as a supplement. This is anti-inflammatory and allows you to live longer.
Life Expectancy In The US Drops
Conclusion
There is no reason why the US population should not have the same life expectancy as other industrialized nations. The problem is that people have become accustomed to consume the products of the fast food industry. But this can be changed. Cut out processed food, processed red meat, red meat from feedlots. The feedlots give the cattle antibiotics as a growth stimulator, which changes the consumer’s bowel flora and causes colorectal cancer. Follow the other points I made above and life expectancy will climb. No doctor can fix this, unless consumers take responsibility back into their own hands and follow a healthy lifestyle.
