United States Life Expectancy on the Rise, But Health Progress Lags Behind

Recent statistics show that life expectancy in the United States has increased over the last two decades. However, Americans are also spending more than half of their lives in poor health, according to a new study.

And despite that the United States is the biggest spender on health care in the world, it still lags behind other prosperous countries  with the highest rates of premature death, including heart disease, violence, traffic accidents and diabetes.

The much talked about obesity epidemic seems to be one of the main culprits seen in United States Health woes, according to the report. Not enough residents are getting their recommended doses of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and eating diets high in sodium and sugar can lead to malnourishment and empty calories.

The study is the latest in a series of reports by the Global Burden of Disease Study, a collaboration of 488 researchers in 50 countries. The project looked at early deaths and disability caused by 291 diseases and injuries around the world. It also looked at country by country which risk factors make the biggest contributions to health problems.

"It's rare these days that you get information or studies that give you the big picture," said study author Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, in Seattle, via a press release. "It's pretty uncommon to step back and say, 'What does all the evidence tell us about the most important health problems, and where does the U.S. fit in that landscape?"

Over the last 20 years, Murray said that the United States has seen illnesses that cut life short switch to chronic conditions that lead to longer-term disability--the most common of which are lower back pain, depression and musculoskeletal disorders.

Biggest causes for early death in the United States still continue to be heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and road injuries.

It's fascinating to look at decade between 1990 to 2010, when the average life expectancy increased in the United States by a three years from 75.2 years to 78.2 years for both sexes combined. However, other prosperous countries have seen even larger gains over the same period.

For example, Ireland gained 5.1 years on average and South Korea gained 7.6 years of life expectancy. 

The study pinpointed diet as the number one cause to blame for a setback in life expectancy compared with our other similar countries. 

What do you think? 

More information regarding the study findings can be found online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.