US life span decreases for third year in a row

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In 1960 the USA had the longest lifespan in the world. Today we are 38th. Why? We spend more per person on healthcare than any other country. Why?
 
The reports I’ve read blame the opioid crisis for shortening our life expectancy.
 
Yeah - I don’t understand why the epidemic is happening at this particular moment, though; haven’t these pain killers been around for many decades?
 
I have a coworker whose sister became addicted to painkillers after being treated for an aneurysm.
 
tomarin said:
Yeah - I don’t understand why the epidemic is happening at this particular moment, though; haven’t these pain killers been around for many decades?
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Opioids have been, but not in the variety that exists now. Nor were there synthetic equivalents that are sometimes even more addicting.
 
I think too that too little has been thought about the differences in ways drugs affect different people. Some are very little affected. Some are addicted from the very first dose.
 
Pain medication is absolutely necessary-pain can be unbearable. The concept of pain control definitely needs guidelines. The thought of restricting pain medication because of a bureaucratic guideline created by someone in an office who worse pain has been a migraine is frightening.
 
rebeccanew1 said:
Pain medication is absolutely necessary-pain can be unbearable. The concept of pain control definitely needs guidelines. The thought of restricting pain medication because of a bureaucratic guideline created by someone in an office who worse pain has been a migraine is frightening.
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I wasn’t advocating restricting anything.
 
tomarin said:
Yeah - I don’t understand why the epidemic is happening at this particular moment, though; haven’t these pain killers been around for many decades?
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They’ve become much stronger, over prescribed, and the illegal supply has increased, mostly from China if I recall. Illegal drug popularity catches on and spreads like a brush fire, when the conditions are right.
 
The largest percentage of Americans have done little to better their health. Obesity is on the rise due to the abundance of fast food choices, high sugar cereals, excessive intake of saturated fats, and lack of exercise. It’s no secret. The American lifestyle doesn’t promote health. Most Americans answer is not to “prevent” illness, eat better, exercise more. Their answer is to continue on with their indulgent lifestyle and take a drug or have surgery to correct it to get them over the hump so they can continue what they are doing. Even a large majority of those who live longer may do so in an unhealthy, sick existence. Take a look at a high school yearbook from 1940, 1960, 1980, 2000 and today and identify how many of the kids in those photos would be overweight and how many are even obese. I think you will see a trend. It is just too easy to be unhealthy. It takes discipline in a country of ample indulgences to avoid them and most people aren’t wiling to make that effort or only a token gesture to pacify their guilt. Efforts usually consist of a cheese burgers fries and a “salad”.
 
Another reason on the list of reasons:
He then talks about the opioid epidemic, and how in many parts of the Third World — the so-called [****hole] countries, note well — you can buy opioids over the counter, but people don’t abuse them. Why not? Haque writes:

So the “opioid epidemic” — mass self-medication with the hardest of hard drugs — is again a social pathology of collapse: unique to American life. It is not quite captured in the numbers, but only through comparison — and when we see it in global perspective, we get a sense of just how singularly troubled American life really is.
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Yes, but the internet makes it easy to get your hands on them from unscrupulous doctors. Likewise, doctors find it harder to say no to patients who make unreasonable requests, knowing that the patients can badmouth them on the internet. The same problem occurs with antibiotic abuse, in that case, patients are looking for a quick fix, rather than a high, but the result is antibiotic-resistant bacteria proliferating and killing people.
 
With regard to life expectancy the US is the worst of all developed countries.
 
thistle said:
With regard to life expectancy the US is the worst of all developed countries.
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I’m not sure what “life expectancy” they’re talking about. “Life expectancy” in any population is a matter of the average age of the population and not a whole lot more. The older a population is, the longer is its “life expectancy”. That’s because the hazards of life one faces at age 7 are much more numerous than those one faces at age 70. Some 7 year olds live to age 71 and some don’t. But nearly all 70 year olds live to age 71.
 
Ridgerunner said:
I’m not sure what “life expectancy” they’re talking about. “Life expectancy” in any population is a matter of the average age of the population and not a whole lot more. The older a population is, the longer is its “life expectancy”. That’s because the hazards of life one faces at age 7 are much more numerous than those one faces at age 70. Some 7 year olds live to age 71 and some don’t. But nearly all 70 year olds live to age 71.
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In other words, the longer you live, the longer you’re likely to live, statistically?
 
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