The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC), have released data on November 29, 2018, documenting that the life expectancy in the United States has continued to shorten for the third year in a row. In addition, the U.S. is not keeping pace with other advanced western nations and has the same life expectancy as Cuba, according to the World Health Organization.
The report noted that the ten leading causes of death have not changed from 2016 to 2017. The reason for the drop in life expectancy is being attributed to an increase in drug overdoses and suicides. A CNN article on this reported that, according to a report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, drug overdose deaths reached an all-time high in 2017 of over 70,000, while the suicide rate increased by 3.7% for the year.
Some of the facts published in the CDC report include that life expectancy for the U.S. population declined to 78.6 years in 2017. They also noted that no progress has been made in the past year on the alarmingly high infant mortality rate where it is estimated that 579.3 infant die per 100,000 live births. This 2017 statistic was not significantly different from the 2016 rate. Overall the CDC report noted that the age-adjusted death rate increased by 0.4% from 728.8 deaths per 100,000 for the population in 2016 to 731.9 per 100,000 in 2017.
In a press release on the CDC report, Robert R. Redfield, M.D., CDC Director stated, “The latest CDC data show that the U.S. life expectancy has declined over the past few years. Tragically, this troubling trend is largely driven by deaths from drug overdose and suicide. Life expectancy gives us a snapshot of the Nation’s overall health and these sobering statistics are a wakeup call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable. CDC is committed to putting science into action to protect U.S. health, but we must all work together to reverse this trend and help ensure that all Americans live longer and healthier lives.”
The World Health Organization reports that the top nation for life expectancy is Japan, with a life expectancy of 83.7, followed closely by Switzerland and Singapore. Other nations that are also ahead of the U.S. in this category include Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Canada.
Dr. George Curry, president of the International Chiropractors Association commented on the new statistics by noting, “Even if we do not address the fact that there has been little medical progress on the mortality rate for the ten most common causes of death in the U.S., we cannot ignore that the common thread of the increased deaths is drugs.” He continued, “The U.S. population utilizes more medications and drugs by a wide factor than any other advanced population on the planet. The chiropractic profession has always stood as an alternative to the drug-first approach and continues to promote health from within.”