The Surprising Reason Americans Are Far Less Healthy Than Others in Developed Nations

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/surprising-reason-americans-are-far-less-healthy-others-developed-nations




***SNIP

But many epidemiologists — scientists who study health outcomes — have their doubts. They point outthat the United States ranked as one of the world’s healthiest nations back in the 1950s, a time when Americans smoked heavily, ate a diet that would horrify any 21st-century nutritionist, and hardly ever exercised.

Poor Americans, then as now, had chronic problems accessing health care. But poverty, epidemiologists note, can’t explain why fully insured middle-income Americans today have significantly worse health outcomes than their middle-income counterparts in other rich nations.

The University of Washington’s Dr. Stephen Bezruchka has been tracking these outcomes since the 1990s. The new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Bezruchka tells me, should worry Americans at all income levels.

“Even if we are rich, college-educated, white-skinned, and practice all the right health behaviors,” he notes, “similar people in other rich nations will live longer.”

[RKP5637]

1. Makes sense to me. How many people does one know that are 'really' pretty

much stress free today ... It's a constant battle to barely break even, the cards are so stacked against most Americans with no end in sight.

[HockeyMom]

4. Having lived through the 50s and 60s,

I will definitely agree that it was a less stressful time period. Since I grew up in NYC, I can just imagine how less stressful it was in other places around the country.

[RKP5637]

8. I think it was too. Granted, some groups were not stress free, but thinking about

jobs and all there did not seem to be this concerted effort to suppress the majority of Americans ... at least it seemed there might be a light at the end of the tunnel and it was not a train. Today there is a systematic concerted effort to screw most Americans out of anything.

[Half-Century Man]

2. I never understood the "king of the hill" mentality of our culture

If, in our maniacal race to the top, you are the one who fights, claws, stabs, and kills your way to the top of the heap. What good is there at the top of a pile of corpses?

[RKP5637]

9. Exactly, it is a backward regressive mentality and needs to be thrown aside in the 21st century. n/t

[IronLionZion]

11. It's lonely at the top, but comforting to look down on those below.

I saw that on a demotivational joke poster.

It explains the political views in our country a little bit and why folks are militantly opposed to equality, socialism, universal anything. They don't want everyone to be the same. They want to be better than someone, so someone else has to be worse off. I want mine, F everyone else. I earned it, no one else deserves it.

The 1% easily play the rest of us against each other. Don't blame millionaire executives and politicians. They're hardworking job creators. Blame your next door neighbors, union workers, minimum wage workers, unemployed, disabled, poor, sick, elderly,etc. Those freeloaders are "taking" what you worked for. Keep working hard at some corporate job that sucks up all overtime with no vacation, crappy benefits, no job security, and some day maybe you can be a millionaire too. And folks believe it.

[Half-Century Man]

14. Replace money with legos

If you have all have legos you can play together. If you have all the legos the other kids play something else and you sit on your pile of legos and watch them. woohoo

[Downwinder]

3. I have a biased opinion.

What changed or happened in the '50s? The Nevada nuclear tests started.

[JEB]

6. That and huge proliferation of chemicals.

[Downwinder]

7. But we had lead based paint, mercury soap, Carbon tet, TCE solvents,

played in the dirt, washed grease off with gasoline, and had asbestos insulation. In the '40s.

[BainsBane]

5. Our lifestyle today is far more sedentary than in the 1950s

Largely due to technological innovation. People moved more then, even if they didn't go to the gym.

[randome]

10. I resist finding a single factor for society's problems.

But I do think most of our ills descend from the fact that we have too damned many people. In this country and in this world.

The more people, the more they compete. For jobs, resources, etc. The more competition, the more shortcuts are entertained. The more shortcuts that are entertained, the more laws are broken and the more stress is generated.

We would do our descendents a big favor by 'simply' reducing our population.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[RKP5637]

12. Yep, I think that is a root cause too ... and earth can only sustain so many. ... but when

one says over population is a problem so many people go berserk.

[randome]

13. That's why I put quote marks around 'simply'.

Like Climate Change, population is always someone else's responsibility because the contribution each of us as an individual makes is miniscule in comparison.

The larger picture goes ignored until someday we will be forced to face the truth.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[Fumesucker]

15. A smaller percentage of people are needed to produce the basics of life, food, clothing, shelter

That leaves everyone not employed in the basics to either find something to a greater or lesser extent frivolous to do or do nothing.

I'm reminded of the recent GD OP about bespoke ice cubes @ $7.50 ea..

[reformist2]

18. Yep. Our work-based economic system isn't capable of dealing with a world that doesn't need workers.

The answer (to me, at least) is obvious. If robots were to eventually do all our work, we should all be sharing the wealth!

But no, the powers that be can't have that. The present economic system will eventually lead us to a society with an tiny elite class that owns the robots, and then the masses of people with no stable, meaningful employment or reliable, steady income. You said it when you talked about the proliferation of frivolous jobs - drugs, gambling and prostitution will be the big growth industries of the future.

[randome]

20. Yeah, that has a big impact, too.

I'm not sure I've heard a Republican use the word 'technology' in a long time. Democrats do but not to the extent necessary to address our problems and put things into context.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[hfojvt]

21. but compared to other developed nations

America still has low population density compared to Japan, Germany, France, England, etc. Not sure about Sweden (okay with a quick check, I find Sweden has a low population density, about the same as Arizona).

It did seem to me somewhat that we were more urbanized than Germany. I was looking at Spaichingen, Germany over time and it seemed like the population of that small town had grown in Germany since 1900 whereas many small towns I know in the midwest have been stagnant or shrunk since 1900, that instead of having growing small towns, we have more people moving to bigger cities.

And perhaps if you ignore the huge, largely unpopulated west - our population density (where most Americans actually live) is fairly high in places like New Jersey and Massachusetts. Huge areas like Alaska and the Dakotas bring our average down.

[randome]

22. Our insatiable need for ownership is higher than most other countries, I would think.

Our high competitive rate in business helps drive a lot of the abuses we see and therefore stress.

Would it be easier as a society to reduce our competitiveness or to reduce our population?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[Chipper Chat]

16. I must take issue with "hardly ever exercized" in the 50s.

1. We walked everywhere. One mile to school and we walked home for lunch. That's 4 miles a day 5 days a week.

2. Mowing the lawn. Those manual mowers were hard to push especially if the grass got a little long.

3. Chores. I was always pulling weeds for Grandma or cleaning out the garage, etc:

4. In high school we had inrtamural sports which involved more boys than just the official school teams.

5. 2 nights a week we had "teen canteen" where we would dance for 2 hours straight.

We were just "always moving" and grew restless sitting in the classroom.

Last May I looked at the local high school yearbook and was shocked at how many high school kids are fat and out of shape. I assume it's from too many Big Macs and sitting in front of a computer for 12 hours a day.

[LWolf]

17. I know this is true for me.

My stress levels have always been high, coming from a poor-working class background and living from paycheck to paycheck for most of my life. For a brief time I managed to work myself out of that place, but in the last decade, I'm right back where I started. Even though I have a college degree and a supposed "middle class" job. I've found that my body has aged faster than those in the generations before me, that I have more chronic health issues than someone my age should, and I identified stress as the biggest factor some time back. Just anecdotal, I know.

And none of these determinants matter more, these researchers contend, than economic inequality, the divide between the affluent and everyone else. Over 170 studies worldwide have so far linked income inequality to health outcomes. The more unequal a modern society, the studies show, the more unhealthy most everyone in it — and not the poor alone.

Just how does inequality translate into unhealthy outcomes? Growing numbers of researchers see stress as the culprit. The more inequality in a society, the more stress. Chronic stress, over time, wears down our immune systems and leaves us more vulnerable to disease.

This same stress drives people to seek relief in unhealthy habits. They may do drugs or smoke — or eat more “comfort foods” packed with sugar and fat.

[Romulox]

19. It seems a huge proportion of our population now lives in the Southeast and Southwest.

Both of which are considered largely "uninhabitable" for many without air conditioning. I've never visited Phoenix, but I don't imagine there's a great deal of outdoor recreating there in July. From what I've been told, people in these climes seem to move from the AC in their cars to the AC at Sam's Club, back to the AC at home with as little time outside as possible.

[FarCenter]

31. Besides discouraging activity, air conditioning keeps you from sweating

Sweating actually imposes a significant metabolic load and burns up calories. Plus, high temperatures are more uncomfortable if you are too fat, and this discourages obesity. Heat also reduces appetite.

[Rstrstx]

32. In the hot areas of the U.S, winter is our summer

Whatever physical activities in, say, Phoenix that are not done in July are easily done in the winter months when people up north are moving from the heat of their cars to the heat of Sam's Club, back to the warmth of their home with as little time outside as possible. The whole country can't live in Southern California.

It's an interesting idea and has probably been researched before, but to be taken seriously it would have to be broken down demographically, say for instance the uneducated vs those with college degrees, those who exercise regularly, ethnicity, etc. Even then differences could be explained by local diet and culture vs actual differences in climate (though you could argue culture is a consequence of climate)

[Demo_Chris]

23. Hard to live stress free when you are working without any net...

I imagine many American's are damn near PTSD.

[Greybnk48]

24. A huge part of it is diet.

I agree completely with the stress assessment and it may be the #1 factor, but diets have changed dramatically as well. To see this just look around you.

I remember in the 50's we would have "cheeseburger night" where my dad would walk a block or two to a local diner and get cheeseburger's (real ones, hand formed) and french fries (again, cut there) and bring them home. Also, when we went for pizza, you could watch the thing made from scratch if you wanted to (maybe canned tomatoes for the sauce).

There weren't a zillion candy bars; there were only a few until I was about 12 (1960). That was about the time things like packaged cakes (Tasty Cake) and Potato chips became big.

Everything today is so highly processed and chemical laden. We noticed at dinner last night that even Ocean Spray has HFC in their cranberry sauce. Unreal.

There's a fast food joint everywhere you look. EVERYWHERE! Not so in the 50's. I think it was also when I was 12 when the first McDonald's opened in my area just outside of Philly. My parents took us there as a treat maybe a few times that year (I only remember once).

My main point is that food today is not the same food I ate as a kid. My junk food repertoire, until the junk food explosion, was ice cream, hershey bars, popcorn or crackerjacks, cookies, jello and once in a blue moon we could have a coke as a treat.

[RC]

29. You beat me to it.

So much our prepackaged foods, are not much more than chemicals, to make it look and taste like food. High Fructose corn syrup wasn't in everything back then either.

[dickthegrouch]

33. Not just diet, but nutrition

I am shocked at how quickly I feel very different when I leave the urban environment of Silicon Valley for the country. I begin feeling much healthier after just two days. I'm quite certain that the air quality has something to do with it, but the single most obvious thing is that the food tastes better closer to the point of farming and production.
Even something as simple as scrambled eggs taste quite different in Lake Tahoe than they do in San Jose (whether I cooked them or not!).
But the overall quality of meals in most other environments (especially in other countries; I've visited 28) is far higher, and not just because they are often consumed in restaurant settings (many of my meals "at home" are from restaurants too).

Bring on my next vacation

[JayhawkSD]

25. Here's a sample of "the best health care in the world."

In Sept 2011 I was given a cardiac stress test prior to a surgery at a large medical clinic and was told thet "it was fine."

In Feb of this year I had pnuemonia and my doctor noticed something on my EKG that made it look like I'd had a heart attack. I finally got around to seeing a cardiologist she referred me to last month, a guy in private practice, and he ran the same stress test. He then informed me that the test showed that I had indeed had a heart attack, and one of some significance, leaving a sizeable scar in my heart.

He asked if anyone had mentioned anything to me after the test in 2011. I said no one had. He said he was shocked because the heart attack showed in the results of that test as well as in the one he ran. "That test was not normal," he said, "it was seriously abnormal, and someone should have talked with you about it."

In today's "best health care in the world" they run a test and then ignore the results. It was two years later that I happened to have a different doctor run the same test, get the same results and actually pay attention to a heart attack.

[Brigid]

36. Did you have a "silent" heart attack?

That does happen.

[TwilightGardener]

26. We may have eaten high fat diets and canned veggies in the 50's, and smoked and drank,

and cars didn't have seatbelts, and medicine wasn't as advanced as today...BUT to say people didn't "exercise" back then is ridiculous. Even when I was a kid in the 70's, people walked more places, did more things outside. So couchpotato-dom with electronic entertainment HAS to be a factor in the past few decades. Diet also is a factor--where I work, my coworkers pretty much subsist on DAILY fast food binges and huge bags of chips/Cheetos. I have no idea how they all afford it on near minimum wage. What else? Quality of food supply, social isolation leading to stress and loneliness...

[Douglas Carpenter]

27. I suspect that one's aging years are lonelier and sadder in America than in most other developed

countries

[Art_from_Ark]

28. Americans might have been "healthier" compared with other countries in the '50s,

but a lot of those countries (in what we now consider the "developed" world) were still recovering from the disastrous effects of war, and poverty, lack of food, lack of advanced health care were still big problems in much of Europe and Japan, among other places. It should also be noted that the '50s were the decade that the fast food craze started. Also, in the '50s and '60s, American kids tended to ride bicycles everywhere, they played outside a lot, and they had recess periods in school where they could run around. Also, snack and soda machines were unthinkable in elementary and junior high schools. And high fructose corn syrup was just something you made an occasional pecan pie with.

[Utopian Leftist]

30. I have an idea about why our health is so poor...

Big Pharma rakes in a very high proportion of their extortion/profit from America, this being the one and only country on Earth that is willing to pay the prices that the industry whims dictate/Republicans in Congress insist we pay. I asked a reasonably intelligent con(servative) outright once, why they should be allowed to get away with this, and his response? "How else are they supposed to fund research into new drugs?"

And in order for Big Pharma to rake it in, they have to convince us that we need it (pretty easy feat, given the vast corporate entertainment complex/propaganda machine/media). I've seen them in plenty of doctors offices, the whores/"representatives" of Big Pharma, pushing their drugs on physicians and psychiatrists, offering them the sun and moon in return for a few extra prescriptions of their newest fad.

Did they come up with a miracle cure for restless leg syndrome yet? If not, then count on your tax dollars AND your wallet dollars (in a roundabout way) going to pay for them to find one. Just don't count on the new pill helping your overall health...

[Brigid]

34. Life today is generally very stressful, will say that.

I was out for a short time just this evening, and within the space of about 15 minutes I was panhandled twice and harassed in line while ordering a freaking chicken sandwich. Just stepping outside your front door feels like stepping into a jungle any more.

[liberal_at_heart]

35. For me depression and anxiety have driven me to be addicted to sugar.

I keep fighting the good fight but rarely go more than 3 months before the addiction kicks back in.