My parents both lived into their nineties. My paternal grandfather lived to 91. I come from a line of mostly long-lived people.
But here in the United States, our population overall is struggling. We are fatter and sicker than we’ve ever been, and now a drop in life expectancy among Americans is starting to show just how bad things are – we are now dying sooner than the populations of at least 50 other nations.
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US life expectancy is projected to sink to 66th in the world in the coming decades, according to a major new study.
Despite being one of the wealthiest nations, Americans already die younger than their equivalents in almost 50 countries.
But ‘alarming trajectory of health challenges’, which includes rampant obesity, drug use and firearm suicides, is going to widen that gap, according to research in the Lancet.
The researchers found life expectancy for men and women in the US is expected to rise from 78.3 years in 2022 to 79.9 years in 2035 and 80.4 years in 2050 for both men and women.
That last sentence would appear to contradict the thesis, and if you’re familiar with Aristotle’s laws of thought, you’ll know that contradictions don’t exist.
And that’s the case here; Americans are living longer due to advances in medical treatments and diagnoses, but we’re still lagging behind the rest of the developed world – and even parts of the Third World.
The slight projected increase is linked to medical advances and doctors getting better at screening and treating chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease. But it is relatively small compared to other countries.
For their analysis, researchers from the University of Washington assessed the impacts of hundreds of diseases and other health risks on the US and individual states and compared them to more than 200 other countries.
Their models show that by 2050, several Sub-Saharan African nations like Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, as well as war-torn countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen will see even greater gains than the US will, with countries like Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia moving closer to or exceeding US levels.
Dr Stein Emil Vollset, who led the new study, said: ‘The rapid decline of the US in global rankings from 2022 to 2050 rings the alarm for immediate action.’
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This is a big part of what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran on, and it’s a big part of why President-elect Trump (yep, still not tired of that) has nominated him to run Health and Human Services. RFK Jr. is concerned about Americans being fat and sick, and he’s correct to be worried.
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Maybe RFK Jr. can help set us back on a healthier path. But there’s only so much a government agency can do, especially at the federal level, which in all candor is greatly separated from the people. In the end, Americans are responsible for their own health decisions. Everything from diet to exercise makes a difference, and many Americans don’t worry overly much about either; scarfing down Big Macs and laying on the couch watching television isn’t conducive to longevity.
Only a few short decades ago most Americans were far more active than now. As kids, we went outside and played all day, coming in only when it got dark. Adults played in softball leagues, went bowling, took care of their yards, and were generally more active than today. Folks who lived in the country, then as now, had plenty of physical activity in the form of chores, just to keep the place up.
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But our society has become increasingly sedentary; for many Americans, their diets are appallingly bad. That’s what has to be fixed. We have to Make America Healthy Again, and a lot of that means getting Americans up and moving about more – and eating less.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go grab my splitting maul and split some kindling for the wood stove.
