According to a recent report, American is currently living a longer life than previously. Their lifespan has increased from an average of 78.6 years during the year 2009 while as upon 2010, Americans live to 78.7 years.
At the same time the death rate of Americans has experienced a drop of 0.5% in one single year; from 2009 to 2010. The United States death rate has witnessed its lowest rate that it has ever known. In accordance to the recent set of information received from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, there are 746.2 deaths for every 100,000 persons, which is an extremely low figure.
America has been able to see a decline in its death rate as the nation’s principal killers, cancer and heart diseases, which accounted for 47% of the country’s mortality in the year 2010, have also experienced a decrease. Death due to heart disease decreased by 2.4%, and those linked with cancer went down by 0.6%.
The report has based itself on 98% of death certificates that have been made accessible to the NCHS. Certificates were obtained from the District of Columbia as well as from fifty other states.
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine’s acting regional chair, Dr. David McClellan, stated that all these statistic is leading to the fact the there is an improvement in the nation’s health; people’s life expectancy has increased and this is great news. However, on the other hand, age-related illnesses are beginning to become more significant.
For example, pneumonitis, also known as aspiration pneumonia usually occurs when a person becomes so old and incapacitated that they are not able to swallow. Dr. David McClellan explained that this could be a result of dementia or even the after effects usually associated with stroke.
He furthermore stated that there is still much to be done regarding the fight against the obesity, smoking epidemic and unbalanced diet as well as insufficient exercise. He is of view that if the outbreak of smoking could at least be brought under control, America death rates would drop even more.
The hematology/oncology’s chairman of Ochsner Health System, located in Baton Rouge, Brooks, is even more optimistic; in his point of view, this is excellent new. Americans are being able to have a better grip on heart diseases and cancer by bringing a decrease in smoking.
Additionally, Brooks said that statins also have a significant role to play in the reduction of mortality toll due to heart disease, whereas cancer screening is proving to be beneficial in saving lives as well.
Minor changes in the positions of other grounds of mortality have also been observed.
Pneumonitis has replaced homicide, which was positioned in the first 15 category since the year 1965.
Influenza/ pneumonia and kidney disease exchanged places. The former is ranked 9th while the latter is in the 8th position.
A serious drop has been seen in influenza and pneumonia. Winthrop University Hospital’s, located in Mineola, New York, chairman of medicine, Dr. Michael Niederman, explained that some time back, they were ranked among the top six most important causes of death.
He views this being truly encouraging as according to him America is currently dealing with an older population which comprises of patients who suffer from pneumonia regularly. However, this confirms the national precedence on vaccination; pneumococcal as well as influenza.
Parkinson’s, hypertension, liver disease, septicemia, suicide, kidney disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, accidents, stroke and chronic lower respiratory diseases are among the other principal reasons of mortality.
According to Brooks, it is noteworthy that the majority of these illnesses are directly linked to the ageing population.
That is not all, mortality rates also went down for accidents (by 1.1%), respiratory diseases (by 1.4%), stroke (by 1.5%), septicemia (by 3.6%) and pneumonia and influenza (by 8.5 %) .
On the contrary, Parkinson’s disease has increased by 4.6%, cirrhosis and liver disease by 3.3%, pneumonitis by 4.1%, kidney disease by 1.3% and Alzheimer’s disease by 3.3%.
These diseases remain among the five top causes of death.
Between the year 2009 and the year 2010, a decline of 13.3% in the mortality rate of HIV/AIDS was seen. Even though the latter was not found among the fifteen principal killers, it was treated as being a considerable concern, in particular for persons aged between 15 and 64.
Infant death rate also witnessed a decline; it went down by 3.9% as from the year 2009.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that Lenox Hill Hospital’s, preventive cardiologist, Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, put in a word of caution against being too enthusiastic regarding the findings.
She expressed that while this remains good news, there is no reason to be overjoyed. The high rate in diabetes, obesity, cholesterol, blood pressure, is leading people to start getting sick much younger.
Source: Your Life USA Today
Sat, Jan 21, 2012
Anti Aging, Longevity