U.S. life expectancy slipped as recession took hold

[IDemo]

msnbc.com

Life expectancy in the United States dropped in 2008, the first full year of a grueling recession that saw mixed effects, both good and bad, on the nation’s health, according to new government data.

Overall life expectancy fell to 77.8 years, down slightly from 77.9 in 2007, the year that the recession began, and below a record high of 78.1 years in 2006. In a country like the U.S., the drop is small but ominous, public health experts said.

“The decline in life expectancy is a wake-up call,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of global health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. “It is a call for action.”

Death rates due to high blood pressure, chronic respiratory disease and suicide all rose in 2008, though health officials cautioned it’s still too early to tie those effects directly to the recession.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40578643/ns/health-aging/

[Kennah]

1. Key areas to watch in here in the U.S. in the coming years ...

... are death attributed to heat stroke, hypothermia, starvation, etc.

[Overseas]

2. Thanks to Republican Supply Side Economics.

Increased death after the crash, while waiting for the 400% increase in wealth at the top to Trickle Down.

Hoping we can really move forward to Democratic Demand-Side Economics.

Free the people from medical expense terror and we'll spend more.

Put us to work repairing our national infrastructure allowed to crumble and decay to finance the Bush Wars, and we'll spend those wages right away.

We demand-side Democrats are not sanctimonious purists. That term should be applied to the GOP. They are pure about their motives-- pushing the supply side policies that crashed our economy already.