NonilexOct 3, 2023
#LifeExpectancy in the U.S. has been declining since 2014.

The #American #diet, #HealthCare system & #poverty have contributed to an epidemic of #ChronicIllness, a Post examination found.
More adults are dying in their prime.

5-10% of all #US #children have developed #FattyLiverDisease. Before the early 2000s, it almost exclusively affected adults, particularly heavy drinkers.

#FoodDeserts #Nutrition #Accessibility #Affordability #GeographicInequality
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2023/american-life-expectancy-dropping/
Show threadNonilexOct 3, 2023

Even before the pandemic…
Sickness & death were/are scarring entire communities…. In a quarter of the nation’s counties, mostly in the #South & #Midwest, working-age people are dying at a higher rate than 40 years ago….

Deaths of adults 35-64 are concentrated in the nation’s interior, including #Appalachia, the #MississippiDelta & parts of the Midwest. In recent decades, death rates have been rising in the interior while declining in coastal regions.

#FoodDeserts #Health #GeographicInequality

Show threadNonilexOct 3, 2023

This phenomenon is exacerbated by the country’s #economic, #political & #racial divides. #America is increasingly a country of haves & have-nots, measured not just by bank accts & property values but also by vital signs & grave markers. Dying prematurely… has become the most telling measure of the nation’s growing #inequality.

…early deaths (are) an extreme manifestation of an underlying deterioration of #health & a failure of the #HealthSystem to respond.

#Affordability #GeographicInequality

Show threadNonilex

WaPo compared #DeathRates for people living in the poorest 10% of counties to rates for people living in the wealthiest 10% of counties over the past 4 decades. In that time, the gap between #rich & #poor death rates grew significantly wider, w/rich communities' death rates improving for many years while poor areas largely stayed the same & then worsened. Death rates also grew many times faster than the difference in #income between the poorest & richest areas.

#Accessibility #Affordability

Oct 3, 2023 at 2:07pmWeb
Show threadNonilexOct 3, 2023

#ChronicIllnesses thrive in a sink-or-swim #culture, w/the US gov spending far less than peer countries on #PreventiveMedicine & #SocialWelfare generally. Breakthroughs in #technology, #medicine & #nutrition that should be boosting average life spans have instead been overwhelmed by #poverty, #racism, #distrust of the #MedicalSystem, fracturing of #social networks & #unhealthy #diets built around highly #ProcessedFood, researchers told The Post.

#FoodDeserts #Accessibility #GeographicInequality