American Average Lifespan Ranked 41st Globally

For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles.
Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands.

A baby born in the United States in 2004 will live an average of 77.9 years. That life expectancy ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Andorra, a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, had the longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years followed by Japan, Macau, San Marino and Singapore.

A major one [reason] is that 45 million Americans lack health insurance, while Canada and many European countries have universal health care, they say.

Among the other factors:
• Adults in the United States have one of the highest obesity rates in the world. 2/3 of adults are overweight while 1/3 are obese.
• Racial disparities, black Americans live five years less than white Americans.
• A relatively high percentage of babies born in the U.S. die before their first birthday, compared with other industrialized nations.

SOURCE:
news.Yahoo.com

That is not good, I always knew we were'nt in the top five, but the 41st!
It's very
sad when Jordan (seriously, Jordan?!) among others outranks us in this.

This really should'nt come as a surprise (to me or anyone else) though, considering
Americans have one of the worst lifestyles (eating lots of very bad food and getting little to no exercise) among others.

Form what I get form the article we need to do several things;
-Universal Healthcare, not just insurance, but full Healthcare.
-Change the terrible habits of eating tons of junk food and get exercise.
-Focus on ways to reduce cancer, heart disease, lung disease, control blood pressure,
reduce cholesterol and regulate blood sugar.

Mind you theres much more we need to do than just that, but just focusing on that
would significantly increase peoples health and raise our lowly position in the
ranking of longevity.


Comments, Opinions?

Originally posted by iori_komei
Form what I get form the article we need to do several things;
-Universal Healthcare, not just insurance, but full Healthcare.
-Change the terrible habits of eating tons of junk food and get exercise.
-Focus on ways to reduce cancer, heart disease, lung disease, control blood pressure,
reduce cholesterol and regulate blood sugar.

Comments, Opinions?

Actually, its 42nd

Aren't there supposed to be cures for cancer, and all of the other diseases out there somewhere? I've heard that things like Aids, cancer, and just about every other disease you could think of could be cured, but that the doctors just weren't releasing that info so they could make money off of forcing people to undergo chemotheraphy and take other pointless medications.

Either way, this country needs to start making serious changes. Health care reform would be a good place to start.


[edit on 12-8-2007 by Saturn]

Originally posted by Saturn
Aren't there supposed to be cures for cancer, and all of the other diseases out there somewhere? I've heard that things like Aids, cancer, and just about every other disease you could think of could be cured, but that the doctors just weren't releasing that info so they could make money off of forcing people to undergo chemotheraphy and take other pointless medications.

There are quite a few different Conspiracy Theories (based on different ailments)
that basically say that Pharmaceutical companies are keeping medicines from
being
researched and/or manufactured.
Personally I think there are some bad people who try to do that and have limited levels
of success, but I don't believe in large scale conspiracies about it.

Either way, this country needs to start making serious changes. Health care reform would be a good place to start.

I 100% agree with you there, unfortunately a large minority of politicians and a good
sized chunk of Americans don't want to do the things to make those changes,
luckily thought hey are in the grand scheme a minority though.