There, There, Now - Things Aren’t So Bad
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with the National Vital Statistics System, reported this month on death rates and life expectancy for the year 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available.
- From 2005 to 2006, death rates decreased significantly for 11 of the 15 top causes of death in the U.S.
- There were fewer age-adjusted deaths from heart disease, cancer, strokes, high blood pressure, and diabetes mellitus.
- Life expectancy in the U.S. rose to an unprecedented 78.1 years. [Japan holds the record at 83 years.]
Please keep these optimistic statistics in mind as you fret about the risks of overweight and obesity, shoddy medical care, high fructose corn syrup, chemical additives in plastic water and baby bottles, fish contaminated with mercury and PCBs, lead paint on toys, overpopulation, medical errors in hospitals, high-carbohydrate diets, saturated fats, trans fats, food coloring and other chemical food additives, municipal water supply contamination by medications, global warming, childhood vaccinations, killer tomatoes (Salmonella contamination), cancer from cellphones, and staph gone wild (MRSA: methicillin-resistant staph aureus).
- Steve Parker, M.D., author of the award-winning Advanced Mediterranean Diet
Additional information: CDC’s graphical presentation of declining death rates for heart disease, cancer, and cerebrovascular disease from 2001 to 2006.