Bleeding Edge

An unintended consequence of our Culture of Pleasure, is the consumption of feel good drugs.

So today, the Fentanyl overdose epidemic amongst the very young people is the leading cause of death. Add to it the Car-Fentanyl super charged overdose deaths amongst the young, and this explains the current Life Expectancy decline in the US. So, if you can curb the Car-Fentanyl and Fentanyl epidemic — it would be possible to reverse the trend of decline. This is easily explained if you delve into a deep dive into the Statistics of Public Health. Indeed this is the most negative outcome of our open culture providing easy access to deadly drugs. This situation coupled with the many young and minority people’s Covid deaths — accounts for the statistical averages that skew the reality of our life’s true length. Ordinary old folk do not die any younger — and indeed their life is now longer than ever, but the very many young people dying at an early age in an untimely and unjust way screw the statistics. Because the very young passing away from these causes, explain the reason why the average life expectancy in the US has been in a serious decline over the last few years.

Life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped once again, decreasing since 2019 from an average of 79 years to 76 years, according to federal health researchers. The past two years have shown the steepest decline in the last century, in what Virginia Commonwealth University’s Dr. Steven Woolf described as an “historic” drop. Native Americans and Alaska natives in particular saw a sharp drop, with life expectancy in these groups falling by more than 6.5 years to an average of 65 years. COVID was the main cause of decline in life expectancy in the U.S., but other factors including drug abuse and heart disease also contributed.

Anyone who has had a family member in the hospital will not be shocked by this. The profit-over-care mentality has crippled the ability of Doctors to care properly for their patients. Patient portals have taken the place of one on one consultations and often patients have to resort to self-diagnosis to try to help the Dr find the root issue because the Dr is rushed and doesn’t remember them from one appointment to the next. That is if you get any time with an actual Dr, as most of the time is now spent with a nurse with the Dr signing off at the end. I do not think the Government should “take over” but they do need to deeply be involved with ensuring that the Medical & Healthcare industry do a far better job of balancing care over profit. This is just my humble opinion having experienced the care or lack thereof for all the patients in the ICU of the Covid hospital wards over the past two years…

Although the U.S. health care system is among the best in the world, Americans suffer from what experts have called “the U.S. health disadvantage,” an amalgam of influences that erode well-being, Dr. Woolf said.

These include a fragmented, profit-driven health care system; poor diet and a lack of physical activity; and pervasive risk factors such as smoking, widespread access to guns, poverty and pollution. The problems are compounded for marginalized groups by racism and segregation…

Life expectancy declines are a shocking confirmation of the devastation that Fentanyl family of opioids overdoses coupled with the Covid pandemic, and the underlying negative health care practices have had on the USA. A three year drop in life expectancy since 2019 is huge and unprecedented, maybe like the GDP falling 15% in 3 years. A shocking commentary on the state of health in our country, and in my view is correlated with the broader trends and negative activities we see. Shocking results for the “wealthiest” country in the world. This should jolt all leaders into thoughtful action. What is to be done?

The US is probably the most data driven country in the world. If possible, any issue is reduced to numbers. Nonetheless, despite the poor results in terms of life expectancy the reporter still insists the US healthcare system “is one of the best in the world.” It really isn’t if it doesn’t deliver good results to large segments of the population.

Although life expectancy is a useful statistic to public health nerds (I count myself in that group), I don’t think it’s a good number for communicating to the general public. What’s going on here is not that typical individuals are suddenly living 3 years less than they would have pre-COVID (which is what life expectancy seems to imply). Rather, a subset of people are dying much more than 3 years earlier than they otherwise would have, which brings down the average by a much smaller amount. Side note: any changes in infant mortality rates can really throw off life expectancy numbers, though that doesn’t appear to be what’s going on here. 

Yours,

Dr Churchill

PS:

We can change this trend but not without a real struggle…