Life Expectancy In U.S. Drops For First Time In Decades, Report Finds
Why should this surprise anyone… our healthcare system is denying chronic pain pts their medically necessary medications… we continue to treat those suffering from addictive personalities as criminals rather that treating them. Insurance companies are refusing to pay for certain medications and/or procedures… and discouraging certain routine diagnostic tests… Only approve the least expensive medication for a particular treatment and as long as it provides some measurable improvement… that is good enough… when different – more costly – medications could have provided a much better quality of life improvement… All the while … the various middlemen in our health care system rack up larger and larger profits.. and that could be because they have some of the largest “lobbying war chests” to get Congress to turn a blind eye to what they are doing and/or pass laws that allow them to continue doing what they have been doing.
One of the fundamental ways scientists measure the well-being of a nation is tracking the rate at which its citizens die and how long they can be expected to live.
So the news out of the federal government Thursday is disturbing: The overall U.S. death rate has increased for the first time in a decade, according to an analysis of the latest data. And that led to a drop in overall life expectancy for the first time since 1993, particularly among people younger than 65.
“This is a big deal,” says Philip Morgan, a demographer at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill who was not involved in the new analysis.
“There’s not a better indicator of well-being than life expectancy,” he says. “The fact that it’s leveling off in the U.S. is a striking finding.”
Now, there’s a chance that the latest data, from 2015, could be just a one-time blip. In fact, a preliminary analysis from the first two quarters of 2016 suggests that may be the case, says Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the new report.
“We’ll have to see what happens in the second half of 2016,” he says.
Still, he believes the data from 2015 are worth paying attention to. Over that year, the overall death rate increased from 724.6 per 100,000 people to 733.1 per 100,000.
While that’s not a lot, it was enough to cause the overall life expectancy to fall slightly. That’s only happened a few times in the past 50 years. The dip in 1993, for example, was due to high death rates from AIDS, flu, homicide and accidental deaths that year.
On average, the overall life expectancy, for someone born in 2015, fell from 78.9 years to 78.8 years. The life expectancy for the average American man fell two-tenths of a year — from 76.5 to 76.3. For women, it dropped one-tenth — from 81.3 to 81.2 years.
“It’s remarkable,” Morgan says. “There are lots of things about this that are unexpected.”
Most notably, the overall death rate for Americans increased because mortality from heart disease and stroke increased after declining for years. Deaths were also up from Alzheimer’s disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease and diabetes. More Americans also died from unintentional injuries and suicide. In all, the decline was driven by increases in deaths from eight of the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S.
“When you see increases in so many of the leading causes of death, it’s difficult to pinpoint one particular cause as the culprit,” Anderson says.
The obesity epidemic could be playing a role in the increase in deaths from heart disease, strokes, diabetes and possibly Alzheimer’s. It could also be that doctors have reached the limit of what they can do to fight heart disease with current treatments.
The epidemic of prescription opioid painkillers and heroin abuse is probably fueling the increase in unintentional injuries, Arun Hendi, a demographer at Duke University, wrote in an email. The rise in drug abuse and suicide could be due to economic factors causing despair.
“Clearly, that could be related to the economic circumstances that many Americans have experienced in the last eight years, or so, since the recession,” says Irma Elo, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
Whatever the cause, the trend is concerning, especially when the death rate is continuing to drop and life expectancy is still on the rise in most other industrialized countries.
“It’s pretty grim,” says Anne Case, an economist at Princeton University studying the relationship between economics and health.
Filed under: General Problems
Every time I send an important e-mail, it gets erased….pissing me-off !!!
I experienced first-hand knowledge of what U R saying, as I have spent time and energy I didn’t have in advocacy for my sister. Now, I am so limited to even take care of myself and am in pursuit of lawyers due to misrepresented meds causing Heavy Metal toxicity.
EVERY NON-for PROFIT wasted our time; [my sister almost died many times and it’s a Godsend she’s still alive-but that doesn’t mean she isn’t more damaged due to incompetent “Care”.
The disgusting “powers that be” need to be held accountable !! instead of causing more damage that’s incurable. My trust, and hope is forever destroyed. We need strong, fearless lawyers like Gerry Spence.
This all started with obamas’ REFORM, which he adopted from dr Ronald Heifetz, [along with the spying on American citizens, Delloitte ], Each president from Bush forward has chipped-away our civil and human rights. I’m not afraid of death-But Torture and being Terrorized by watching the torturing of my sister and anyone suffering crosses the line. This is evil !!! I believe we need Global Intervention. Cruelty and torture are unsustainable.
I believe u r rite,,we need Global Intervention,,,however,,the U.S. Government has long fingers,,,70 % of the U.N’s budget comes from the U.S.,,,and who knows what other agency’s are partially funded someway via the U.S. government????Thee only country I know of,,who is NOT IN BED w/the U.S..,,is Bolivia and Peru,,,,mary
This is just soooo out of control,,,sooo the dea can have employment,,,,,The dea has destroyed our humanity in society,,,,throwing 18 year old in prison for life for a bag of pot,,,for taking away the medically ill medicines…Comparing our MEDICINES,, to ,”drugs,”,putting them in the same category as street drugs,, putting our doctors in the same category as drug pushers is 100000 %%%%wrong,,,,it has destroyed us,,our medicines and our doctors,,,all sooo the dea can guarantee employment for themselves..They are wrong to compare the 2,,,it is a lie that has literally killed people,,,how can that even be conscider justice,,killing the medically ill??????it not,,,its torture and genocide plain and simple,,that the dea has committed,,Instead of the dea,,and the d.o.j…looking inside themselves and concluding,,”my god,what have we done,??”’our agency’s forced rules and regulations are killing innocent people,,extinguishing doctors lives,and everything they worked sooo hard for,,,,because the dea is abusing their ,’just power,”’ The doj,,sits back,,and does NOTHING,,and allows the dea to continue their tyranny,,,Instead,,the doj,,should halt all this,,and realize our society as a whole,,,has turned inhumane,,cruel,,because the doj allows the dea to continue their quest of torture and genocide unto the medically ill,,,mary
We went to an infectious disease dr about 9 mos ago. Although this dr said the hospital should’ve been sued and that she has chronic damage from lyme, with the CDC she said her hands are tied and she can’t help her. Meanwhile, non Lyme literate primary wants my sister to get a new lyme test !! She obviously doesn’t understand Lyme being chronic and how dangerously poor the lyme test is. My sister received a clinical diagnoses from a famous lyme Guru. We borrowed 3,000 for that dr. May have to go to CT, contact lorraine Johnson, find a LLMD before they kill my sister, then that’s it for me.
CDC is killing, torturing, and depopulating us, along with a severely corrupt government. Wish we could move to France; find a place that has empathy and compassion for human unnecessary suffering.
This is an outrage, a massive human rights violation. This is unacceptable and can’t continue. What are the Human Rights Organizations doing about this Torture ????
If this gets any worse I’m finding the biggest cliff I can.
So Sorry, God help us all
“Most notably, the overall death rate for Americans increased because mortality from heart disease and stroke increased after declining for years. Deaths were also up from Alzheimer’s disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease and diabetes. More Americans also died from unintentional injuries and suicide.”
BOOM! How in the hell can they not coorelate this with the fact that more and more pain patients are forced to suffer needlessly due to state & fed laws and the tyrannical DEA (who obviously doesn’t have to answer to anyone)??! I have witnessed first hand the severe damage that untreated severe chronic pain can do to a person’s body. My dad was on oxycodone for 30 years. When the first “crackdown” (around 2010/2011?) happened in our area, doctors were too afraid of continuing his oxycodone, so they yanked him off his medication.
Within a year or so of no longer having access to pain medication, he could no longer walk (with the aid of a cane or walker). He ended up in a wheelchair 24/7. His diabetes spun out of control (open wounds on his lower legs and feet, feet and toes turning blue and/or black, feet & lower legs swollen 3 x’s their normal size). His blood pressure shot up. He gained more weight, which didn’t help any of his conditions, as he was no longer able to stand up and put any pressure on his hips for more than a few seconds at a time. I should also mention that he had COPD, emphysema, congestive heart failure and a few other conditions, so he ended up on oxygen 24/7.
The wound on his worst hip became even worse (first replacement completely botched, severe infection settled in and stayed there for over 30 years – in between 7 or 8 more operations on that same hip – 2 ops on his other hip). Surgeon had to insert a drain so that the nasty pus from the infection could drain out instead of back into his body. As he sat in his wheelchair or slept in his recliner (he could no longer lie down on a bed due to the pain), pressure was constantly put on this nasty wound. His wound specialist could no longer do anything to help. (I can’t even describe the smell when I changed his bandages).
He could no longer ride in a car (due to the severity of the pain), which forced him to miss out on so much, including his only grandson’s high school graduation (less than 5 miles from his house). He basically became an invalid, a prisoner inside his own home. My mom had to work like a dog to help pay for the 19/20 different medications he was on (not one was for pain), so he was alone much of the time. The highlight of his day? When I dropped by to check on him and visit with him (he lived a mile or two away). How pitiful is that??! (I won’t even go into detail on how our local hospital treated him a week prior to him being placed on hospice, 3 weeks prior to his death).
No one is checking anything. The sole focus is on reducing her opiate medication and sending her to physical therapy. She has lyme carditis, severe abdominal pain, panic attacks. The other dr is cutting her zanax. I wish we could afford an LLMD, as the other drs are clueless. I have never felt so terrified and hopeless in my whole life. The two meds I need to at least get a part time job have been altered and misrepresented,[adhd] to the point where I can’t use it, and now the oxycodone has strange side-effects, so bad I pray for the one part to work. How can so many drug manufacturers carry fraudulant medication ?? It’s no wonder our blood pressure is up, we’re suffering in so many ways. We need Standing Rock Support !!
Can u afford a 2nd opinion??or insurance cover a 2nd opinion?mary
I have watched in horror as my only sister had to drop-out from nursing school and became unable to work as an Internationally licensed massage therapist. She was acting strangely and having left-sided pain so severe she had to the ER by ambulance more times than I can count. She endured several unnecessary operations, and almost died from infection when her lipase was recorded at 30,000. They looked at her as a “drug seeking” individual, until a bulseye appeared 2 years later where she had the original pain. The Lyme spirochete broke the blood brain barrier, and by the time she was put on IV antibiotics the damage was done. She has been reinfected with Bartonella, with another bulseye appearing. The infectious disease doctors hands are tied due to the CDC and insurance. She wasn’t treated. She has memory problems, her hands swell, and is in pain most all the time.
Now her infectious disease dr. isn’t taking medicare and we almost had to borrow 200.00 to see him, until a primary dr took over pain mgt care.
The primary is treating her like an addict [has written on medical invoice], narcotic dependent. She is weaning her down every month, and my sister can’t go down anymore.
My rheumatologist told me that the CDC said to tell me to look into holistic pain mgt, that people with chronic illness, including cancer will be unable to access opiate medication for pain.
I am scared to death for both my sister and self as we are all the family we have, and what is being done is nothing short of sadism.
I don’t understand why everyone isn’t concerned ?? This is a human rights violation, torture, and no one is immune from ever becoming sick and having severe pain that most medications won’t help.
I contacted Human Rights Watch. I pray to God they or someone intervenes fast,before more people commit suicide.
It’s insane, it’s against the law to kill oneself yet it’s okay to torture people with chronic illness unnecessarily.
Sadly,,i know exactly what your sister is going thru,,,and I PRAY TO GOD,, that her doctors have checked all her duct work concerning her pancreas,,checked her gallbladder,,and checked her spine?????W/a lipase level that high,,,how is she alive????The pressure on your internal organs from all that edema will swell all her internal organs causing unbelieveable physical pain,,and scarring them for life,,to the point,,they may never work again,,,Soo again please tell me,,her doctors have checked her pancreas,ducts and gallbladder,,,,,your sister is in severe,,severe,,,physical pain,,,,I know,,,,,,,,i hope u find help fast,,,,like Gods speed,,,mary
I will repeat this until I can’t anymore. The CDC, FDA, is and has been suppressing Vital health and infectious disease info for too long !!!!
PLEASE RESEARCH ILADS !……Take just a few moments to get the info that’ts been intentionally suppressed, then you will understand why CDC is IN CHARGE OF HEALTHCARE.
This is true ..to speaktruthweb
NOT 1 BIT DOES THIS SURPRISE ME!!!sadly,,,maryw