
Americans are dying young at alarming rates - vo2maxer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/theres-something-terribly-wrong-americans-are-dying-young-at-alarming-rates/2019/11/25/d88b28ec-0d6a-11ea-8397-a955cd542d00_story.html
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vo2maxer
“US life expectancy has not kept pace with that of other wealthy countries and
is now decreasing.”
[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2756187](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2756187)

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sodosopa
mainly because of drug and substance abuse and suicide. Highlights the need
for mental health treatment and perhaps more education around the perils of
self medicating.

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taylodl
What's driving drug and substance abuse and suicide in the United States? Why
is our mental health so poor? I think there's root causes to these questions
and I think they point to our extreme income inequalities.

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nine_zeros
Good point. Why is everyone so unhappy when the economy is supposedly doing
sooo well.

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kube-system
The economy isn’t doing that well. It’s pretty stagnant. It’s the stock market
that is doing well. But stock market != economy.

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Perenti
Surely the smoking gun (or elephant in the room) is that medical care and
medical insurance are very expensive in the USA, whilst other developed
nations are adopting universal healthcare?

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kube-system
I’m not sure if the lack of universal healthcare is a cause or a symptom of
the problem.

As the article points out, people are engaging in more self destructive
behaviors. These behaviors are much more influenced by social and cultural
support systems than anything else.

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downerending
Read the JAMA article here, rather than the dumbed-down summary:
[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2756187?gu...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2756187?guestAccessKey=c1202c42-e6b9-4c99-a936-0976a270551f&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=112619)

There are lots of interesting details. Notably, the increases are mostly in
the male population.

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vo2maxer
Why not read both? The WaPo article links to the JAMA report and also to
previous ones. It also elicits some comments from other researchers in the
field. I am curious why you’re adding “dumbed-down” to “summary.” In addition,
in the first comment, I quoted from the original report and inserted a link.

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downerending
Partly because the WaPo article is behind a paywall. But mostly because
journalists' glosses of scientific articles tend to be mediocre at best, and
usually far worse. These days especially, it's important to go to the source.

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algaeontoast
I wonder if binge drinking culture is a factor here?

