Life Expectancy

Women in large swaths of the U.S. are dying younger than they were a generation ago, reversing nearly a century of progress in public health and underscoring the rising toll of smoking and record obesity. Nationwide, life expectancy for American men and women has risen over the last two decades, and some U.S. communities still boast life expectancies as long as any in the world, according to newly released data. But over the last decade, the nation has experienced a widening gap between the most and least healthy places to live.

If you're waiting for old age to see signs of cognitive decline, don't hold your breath. A study finds that brain function could start falling off in middle age. Researchers gave a number of cognitive tests to 5,198 men and 2,192 women ages 45 to 70 three times over the course of 10 years. The study participants were assessed on memory, reasoning, vocabulary and aural and visual comprehension. Declines were seen in all areas except for vocabulary, and as people got older there was a faster drop.

The U.S. simply isn't keeping up with the rest of the developed world in life expectancy, new research revealed this week. And women in particular are backsliding, a trend attributed in part to obesity and smoking. But the devil is in the details. Some counties are keeping pace, while others have life expectancies similar to those of Honduras and El Salvador (i.e., not great). Between 2000 and 2007, more than 80% of U.S. counties have slipped in standing against what researchers term the international frontier: the life expectancy of the 10 nations with the lowest mortality.

Do U.S. presidents really age twice as fast as the rest of us while they occupy the Oval Office? Dr. Michael Roizen says the answer is yes. And he sounds like he ought to be a reliable source. Roizen graduated near the top of his medical school class at UC San Francisco, did his residency at a Harvard hospital,  edited six medical journals and currently serves as chairman of the Wellness Institute at the esteemed Cleveland Clinic. Roizen is also the guy behind RealAge, whose premise is that one's calendar age isn't necessarily in sync with the actual wear and tear on the body.

In the United States and Europe, antiretroviral drugs have changed HIV infection from an early death sentence to a lifelong but manageable condition. Many international philanthropies have contended that these medications could do the same in poor countries, and have aggressively negotiated lower costs to put them within reach of those in the developing world, where HIV infection rates are highest. But given the challenges to health and hygiene in such countries, it's not been clear that antiretroviral therapy would reverse the shortened life expectancies of the HIV-infected there as they have in the developed world.

Life expectancy has risen in the United States over the last 25 years, but it's not rising as fast as it once was. And, compared with other developed nations, U.S. life expectancy doesn't measure up. In a report released Tuesday by the National Research Council , experts describe U.S. life expectancy as a "poor performance" compared with many other countries given the fact that the U.S. spends far more on healthcare than any other nation....

Babies born in the United States in 2009 have a record life expectancy of about 78 years and 2 months. That's the latest from preliminary figures released Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Life expectancy didn't rise all that much from 2008 -- just two-tenths of a year for men to 75.7 years and one-tenth of a year for women to 80.6 years. The National Vital Statistics Reports also show that white women have the highest life expectancy followed by black females, white males and black males.

Life expectancy is up in the United States. We know this because the headlines have been trumpeting the news floating around all week. So maybe it’s time for a closer look at what factors affect life expectancy -- and what you can do about it. The National Vital Statistics Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points to these causes of death (no surprises if you've been keeping up on health news). Heart disease is the No. 1 cause (616,067) followed by cancer (562,875)

Girls born in Japan today are likely to live until 2095, some with a good chance of seeing the dawn of the next century thanks to having the world's longest life expectancy, the World Health Organization reported from Geneva on Thursday. The tiny nation of San Marino boasts the longest average life span for men, at 81 years. The United States lags behind the top nations, with an average life expectancy of 78 for the two sexes combined.

After five decades as the third-leading cause of death in the United States, stroke slipped to fourth place in 2008, edged out by chronic lower respiratory disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Preliminary figures for 2008 also showed that life expectancy slipped slightly in 2008, declining from 77.9 years in 2007 to 77.8 in 2008. Heart disease and cancer remained the two leading causes of death, accounting for 48% of all deaths. In fifth through 10th places were accidents, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, influenza/pneumonia, kidney diseases, and septicemia.

Exercising for just 15 minutes most days of the week - about half as much time as doctors in most countries recommend - appears to provide health benefits, Taiwanese researchers reported Monday in the journal Lancet. In most countries, doctors recommend 150 minutes of exercise a week. Dr. Chi-Pang Wen of the National Health Research Institutes and China Medical University Hospital and Jackson Pui Man Wai of the National Taiwan Sport University sought to learn if less activity than that would also make a difference.

June 26 marked the seventh month since my diagnosis of Stage 3B non-small cell lung cancer. Life expectancy from date of diagnosis, with treatment, is 12 to 18 months. So I'm a little shy of halfway there, if we're going by the more optimistic figure. Of course, statistics are only statistics, not a finite rule applied to everyone fighting cancer. A number of people survive far beyond that bleak prognosis; I've met some who've passed the seven-year mark, a few even making 10 years and beyond.

In the United States and Europe, antiretroviral drugs have changed HIV infection from an early death sentence to a lifelong but manageable condition. Many international philanthropies have contended that these medications could do the same in poor countries, and have aggressively negotiated lower costs to put them within reach of those in the developing world, where HIV infection rates are highest. But given the challenges to health and hygiene in such countries, it's not been clear that antiretroviral therapy would reverse the shortened life expectancies of the HIV-infected there as they have in the developed world.

Spending on healthcare in the United States continued to far outpace other industrialized countries in 2009, according to a new tally by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Healthcare spending in the U.S. accounted for 17.4% of the nation's total economic output, nearly twice the average of 34 OECD countries, the OECD found. The next biggest health spender - the Netherlands - spent just 12% of its gross domestic product on medical care. Spending per capita on healthcare, which hit $7,960 in 2009, also far exceeded that of even some of the richest countries in Western Europe.

The U.S. simply isn't keeping up with the rest of the developed world in life expectancy, new research revealed this week. And women in particular are backsliding, a trend attributed in part to obesity and smoking. But the devil is in the details. Some counties are keeping pace, while others have life expectancies similar to those of Honduras and El Salvador (i.e., not great). Between 2000 and 2007, more than 80% of U.S. counties have slipped in standing against what researchers term the international frontier: the life expectancy of the 10 nations with the lowest mortality.

Women in large swaths of the U.S. are dying younger than they were a generation ago, reversing nearly a century of progress in public health and underscoring the rising toll of smoking and record obesity. Nationwide, life expectancy for American men and women has risen over the last two decades, and some U.S. communities still boast life expectancies as long as any in the world, according to newly released data. But over the last decade, the nation has experienced a widening gap between the most and least healthy places to live.

Life expectancy soared over the last part of the 20th century as treatments for major diseases improved and infectious diseases were quelled by vaccines and better treatment. The most recent data, however, hint that life expectancy is no longer growing. And, according to a new study, we may spend more years sick than we did even a decade ago. In a fascinating paper published Monday in the Journal of Gerontology , noted gerontologist Eileen Crimmins and her colleague Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, both of USC, suggest that the goal of a long life marked by mostly healthy years may not be possible for most of humanity.

The life expectancy of Mexicans has grown from 64 years to 67 years, Health Secretary Guillermo Soberon Acevedo reported.

Life expectancy is up in the United States. We know this because the headlines have been trumpeting the news floating around all week. So maybe it’s time for a closer look at what factors affect life expectancy -- and what you can do about it. The National Vital Statistics Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points to these causes of death (no surprises if you've been keeping up on health news). Heart disease is the No. 1 cause (616,067) followed by cancer (562,875)

Babies born in the United States in 2009 have a record life expectancy of about 78 years and 2 months. That's the latest from preliminary figures released Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Life expectancy didn't rise all that much from 2008 -- just two-tenths of a year for men to 75.7 years and one-tenth of a year for women to 80.6 years. The National Vital Statistics Reports also show that white women have the highest life expectancy followed by black females, white males and black males.