Current Events > CDC says life expectancy down as more Americans die younger

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-us-life-expectancy-declining-due-largely-to-drug-overdose-and-suicides/

Due to suicides and drug overdose.

Suicides and drug overdoses pushed up U.S. deaths last year, and drove a continuing decline in how long Americans are expected to live.

Overall, there were more than 2.8 million U.S. deaths in 2017, or nearly 70,000 more than the previous year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. It was the most deaths in a single year since the government began counting more than a century ago.

The increase partly reflects the nation's growing and aging population. But it's deaths in younger age groups -- particularly middle-aged people -- that have had the largest impact on calculations of life expectancy, experts said.

"These sobering statistics are a wake-up call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable," Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC's director, said in a statement.

The suicide death rate last year was the highest it's been in at least 50 years, according to U.S. government records. There were more than 47,000 suicides, up from a little under 45,000 the year before.

For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing, rising a few months nearly every year. Now it's trending the other way: It fell in 2015, stayed level in 2016, and declined again last year, the CDC said.

The nation is in the longest period of a generally declining life expectancy since the late 1910s, when World War I and the worst flu pandemic in modern history combined to kill nearly 1 million Americans. Life expectancy in 1918 was 39.

Aside from that, "we've never really seen anything like this," said Robert Anderson, who oversees CDC death statistics.

In the nation's 10 leading causes of death, only the cancer death rate fell in 2017. Meanwhile, there were increases in seven others - suicide, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer's, flu/pneumonia, chronic lower respiratory diseases and unintentional injuries.

An underlying factor is that the death rate for heart disease -- the nation's No. 1 killer -- has stopped falling. In years past, declines in heart disease deaths were enough to offset increases in some other kinds of death, but no longer, Anderson said.

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Other findings
The CDC figures are based mainly on a review of 2017 death certificates. The life expectancy figure is based on current death trends and other factors.

The agency also said:

A baby born last year in the U.S. is expected to live about 78 years and 7 months, on average. An American born in 2015 or 2016 was expected to live about a month longer, and one born in 2014 about two months longer than that.
The suicide rate was 14 deaths per 100,000 people. That's the highest since at least 1975.
The percentage of suicides due to drug overdose has been inching downward.
Deaths from flu and pneumonia rose by about 6 percent. The 2017-2018 flu season was one of the worst in more than a decade, and some of the deaths from early in that season appeared in the new death dates.
West Virginia was once again the state with the highest rate of drug overdose deaths. The CDC did not release state rates for suicides.
Death rates for heroin, methadone and prescription opioid painkillers were flat. But deaths from the powerful painkiller fentanyl and its close opioid cousins continued to soar in 2017.
The CDC did not discuss 2017 gun deaths in the reports released Thursday. But earlier CDC reports noted increase rates of suicide by gun and by suffocation or hanging.

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What about bullets?
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oxy's america
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FF_Redux posted...

What about bullets?

All crime including gun violence has decreased steadily since 1993. There are also more guns in this country per capita then there ever has been.

Edit: correction, there has been a few years since the 70s that's had more guns per capita.
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mD_atheist posted...

FF_Redux posted...

What about bullets?

All crime including gun violence has decreased steadily since 1993. There are also more guns in this country per capita then there ever has been.

I mean there is this:

The CDC did not discuss 2017 gun deaths in the reports released Thursday. But earlier CDC reports noted increase rates of suicide by gun and by suffocation or hanging.

The report itself does not discuss gun deaths. But does mention suicides via guns have increased.
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Tmaster148 posted...

mD_atheist posted...

FF_Redux posted...

What about bullets?

All crime including gun violence has decreased steadily since 1993. There are also more guns in this country per capita then there ever has been.

I mean there is this:

The CDC did not discuss 2017 gun deaths in the reports released Thursday. But earlier CDC reports noted increase rates of suicide by gun and by suffocation or hanging.

The report itself does not discuss gun deaths. But does mention suicides via guns have increased.

Yee, I was refering gun violence person to person but I see you.
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Ban opioids, that what's affecting life expectancy.
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What about the obesity epidemic? Heart disease and related complications have to be lowering life standards now as well.

ArchiePeck posted...

What about the obesity epidemic? Heart disease and related complications have to be lowering life standards now as well.

An underlying factor is that the death rate for heart disease -- the nation's No. 1 killer -- has stopped falling. In years past, declines in heart disease deaths were enough to offset increases in some other kinds of death, but no longer, Anderson said.

Basically it's flat-lined instead of falling like it has been.
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Thanks Trump
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I read about 6 months ago that Millennials are literally drinking themselves to death and liver related cancer is on the rise.
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darkphoenix181 posted...

Thanks Trump

For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing, rising a few months nearly every year. Now it's trending the other way: It fell in 2015, stayed level in 2016, and declined again last year, the CDC said.

Checks out.
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Tmaster148 posted...

Basically it's flat-lined

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Is it really fair to drop the life expectancy because of people bowing out voluntarily? I feel there should be a separate rating for natural causes and fluke deaths which is a better indicator.
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voldothegr8 posted...

Is it really fair to drop the life expectancy because of people bowing out voluntarily? I feel there should be a separate category for natural causes which is a better indicator.

Yes. If people are commiting suicide en masse in a country. The country has issues.
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wow it's like I was right when I said people are more miserable now than ever before despite the increased amounts of pointless shit to consume
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why is everyone offing themselves and taking drugs if they live in the greatest country ever on the planet?
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the internet was a mistake.

voldothegr8 posted...

Is it really fair to drop the life expectancy because of people bowing out voluntarily? I feel there should be a separate rating for natural causes

Depression is a natural cause
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Living kinda sucks tbh
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PhazonReborn posted...

I read about 6 months ago that Millennials are literally drinking themselves to death and liver related cancer is on the rise.

Oh damn that sounds like me
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Millenials earn less than the preceding several generations did, can't afford school without going into debt, even with an improved job market many fields have positions filled by older generations who are at or beyond retirement age but refuse to leave, no sick time so even if we have insurance (usually out of pocket) we can't lose our job to get proper care, rent costs enough in most of the country that it'd take 2 full time minimum wage jobs to afford and still maybe be able to eat... Capitalism sure is great when you're the one who is extracting value from other's work. When you're the one being robbed though, well.

I can't wait til the last boomer is extinct, considering how much they robbed from the world and future generations.
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Dark_Spiret posted...

the internet was a mistake.

This.
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They need to stop killing each other
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SubtletyRefuge posted...

They need to stop killing each other

This is called not reading a fucking word of the topic.
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ArchiePeck posted...

What about the obesity epidemic? Heart disease and related complications have to be lowering life standards now as well.

Why are you tying obesity and heart disease together. Please remember that people can be healthy at every size.
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gunplagirl posted...

Millenials earn less than the preceding several generations did, can't afford school without going into debt, even with an improved job market many fields have positions filled by older generations who are at or beyond retirement age but refuse to leave, no sick time so even if we have insurance (usually out of pocket) we can't lose our job to get proper care, rent costs enough in most of the country that it'd take 2 full time minimum wage jobs to afford and still maybe be able to eat... Capitalism sure is great when you're the one who is extracting value from other's work. When you're the one being robbed though, well.

I can't wait til the last boomer is extinct, considering how much they robbed from the world and future generations.

Heavy, but I can't say I totally disagree.
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"Millennials are killing our life expectancy"
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TheRealDill2000 posted...

ArchiePeck posted...

What about the obesity epidemic? Heart disease and related complications have to be lowering life standards now as well.

Why are you tying obesity and heart disease together. Please remember that people can be healthy at every size.

They correlate. Like being killed correlate with dying.

Makes sense, happiness and success are finite, there's literally only so much to go around and it's already been grabbed up.

So if you weren't one of the lucky ones born into those things, you aren't going to have much to live for, and thus suicide becomes a valid option.
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Tedtalker posted...

TheRealDill2000 posted...

ArchiePeck posted...

What about the obesity epidemic? Heart disease and related complications have to be lowering life standards now as well.

Why are you tying obesity and heart disease together. Please remember that people can be healthy at every size.

They correlate. Like being killed correlate with dying.

Woosh.
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2nd world country