Not even wealth is saving Americans from dying at rates seen among some of the poorest Europeans

[Diamond_Dog]

Fifty years ago, life expectancy in the U.S. and wealthy European countries was relatively similar.

That began to change around 1980. As European life expectancy steadily increased, the U.S. struggled to keep pace — and its life expectancy even began declining in 2014.

Today, the wealthiest middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. have roughly the same likelihood of dying over a 12-year period as the poorest adults in northern and western Europe, according to a study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Some medical and health policy experts say the trend is a sign of deep-seated issues not just within the U.S. health care system, but with the typical American lifestyle of overconsuming junk food, not getting enough exercise and facing loneliness or financial stress.

(snip)

“Our lifespan has dropped. So Americans now live six years shorter than Europeans. We are the sickest nation in the world and we have the highest rate of chronic disease,” he said last week in a video post on X announcing layoffs of around 20,000 HHS employees.

But Woolf said the Trump administration’s recent gutting of federal health agencies and termination of research grants puts the U.S. on the wrong trajectory when it comes to lowering risk factors for mortality.

“The thing that’s alarming us so much in the health and medicine world is that the policies that are now being pursued in a pretty muscular way are the opposite of what you would want to do to make America healthy again,” he said, referring to Kennedy’s agenda.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/not-even-wealth-saving-americans-dying-rates-seen-poorest-europeans-rcna198929

[c-rational]

1. Bingo. Thanks for posting. Best to manage our own health.

[Hassler]

2. The goal is for us to die younger than the vodka marinated Russians.

It's what Vlad wants.

[NJCher]

3. Do you ever look

At the choices made by the person in front of you at the grocery store checkout lane?

Aisles and aisles of stuff I would never touch.

[Diamond_Dog]

7. Been there, Cher.

Cheap processed food is the most unhealthy, unfortunately. And cooking at home isn’t something many people do.

[Blue Full Moon]

4. They want to decrease the surplus population

[róisín_dubh]

5. I didn't read the study, but wanted to give an anecdote

I live in the UK. Even Brits walk a lot, and it's a pretty car-centric country in some ways. I might park my car after work on a Thursday and not move it again until I need to go to the office the following Thursday. I walk everywhere in my town. I'd take the train to work if it was just a bit more convenient time-wise, but I'm also likely to sell my car soon and go back to taking the train and cycling to work.
I go to the shops multiple times a week to get basics (meat, fish, bread). Staples obviously not, but our food is better. Now, that doesn't mean everyone eats well in the UK because we know they don't. But the quality of the mass-produced food is far, far superior.
People go outside. The weather in the UK and most of Northern Europe is shitty and unpredictable, but people go out in it regardless.
Weirdly, Italians and French people smoke like chimneys. I was just in Paris and barely saw any obese French people. Because everyone walks all over. I think my friend and I did 23 miles of walking in 2 days, and that wasn't even really sightseeing!
So from my perspective this makes some sense.

[Diamond_Dog]

6. Thank you for your perspective, risin_dubh!

Myself and many other people I know would love to be able to walk to shops and stores but in America it’s nearly impossible… huge super stores are bunched together on four-lane highways that are the exact opposite of of pedestrian friendly. Even bike lanes are scarce in most places. Many Americans look down their nose at buses as a last resort or for poor people who can’t afford a car. It’s very frustrating.

[Passages]

8. Winning, winning, winning.