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Friday, December 22nd, 2017

Life Expectancy in the U.S. Is Falling–and Drug Overdose Deaths Are Soaring

Author:     Megan Thielking
Source:     Scientific American
Publication Date:     December 21, 2017
 Link: Life Expectancy in the U.S. Is Falling–and Drug Overdose Deaths Are Soaring
Stephan:   America is becoming an increasingly unhealthy country; the evidence can be seen everywhere. And one of the major contributors to this growing unhealthfulness is the entirely manufactured and completely legal opioid epidemic which is killing 10s of thousands of Americans every year. This death rate is a demonstration that in the United States corporate profits take precedence over human life. It is that stark. Last week 60 Minutes did one of its segments on McKesson Pharmaceutical one of the most evil corporations in an evil industry. They knowingly created the opioid crisis with the help, of course, of an endless string of drugstores, middle men, and doctors. It's America, profit first. That's the real crisis. The result? Well, this is the result.

Credit: Jonathan Perez Unsplash

People born in the U.S. in 2016 could expect to live 78.6 years on average, down from 78.7 the year before, according to a new report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most common cause of death: heart disease.

The report also found death rates — calculated from the number of deaths per 100,000 people — actually rose among young adults between 2015 and 2016. And while the authors didn’t draw a direct link, another report also released Thursday by the CDC found an estimated 63,600 people died of drug overdoses in 2016. Two-thirds of those deaths were caused by opioids. Adults between the ages of 25 and 54 had the highest rate of drug overdose death.

Here’s a look at the findings:

Most common causes of death

Heart disease was the leading cause of death, followed by cancer, unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide.

One key point: Unintentional injuries climbed to the third leading cause of death […]

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1 Comment

  1. Mark R on Saturday, December 23, 2017 at 11:00 am

    Interesting stats and article. Even though I have worked in the pharma industry before (never again) i never saw drug damages specifically classified as unintentional injuries so this added new terms for me.

    It is time that we turn away from the current medical model. Big Pharma cartels and Obamacare are disasters. We need community based holistic healing centers which exist to create well human beings and explore the full range of healing technologies. We also must shift to growing some or all of our own food..food filled with nutrition for making our bodies strong and vibrant. Volunteers in Medicine is one organization maybe worth looking at when considering how to change the way we offer health care..at least it appears to be successful and low cost and actually involves “caring” for people!