The whole system sucks. When I read this this am I was just sick to my stomach and reminded me of this article. It's all tied together. :(
Life Expectancy Drops for Some U.S. Women, Historic Reversal, in 1,000 Counties.....
Life Expectancy Drops for Some U.S. Women
Historic Reversal, in 1,000 Counties, Reflects Increase in Death From Certain DiseasesBy David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 22, 2008; Page A01
For the first time since the Spanish influenza of 1918, life expectancy is falling for a significant number of American women.
In nearly 1,000 counties that together are home to about 12 percent of the nation's women, life expectancy is now shorter than it was in the early 1980s, according to a study published today.
The downward trend is evident in places in the Deep South, Appalachia, the lower Midwest and in one county in Maine. It is not limited to one race or ethnicity but it is more common in rural and low-income areas. The most dramatic change occurred in two areas in southwestern Virginia (Radford City and Pulaski County), where women's life expectancy has decreased by more than five years since 1983.
The trend appears to be driven by increases in death from diabetes, lung cancer, emphysema and kidney failure. It reflects the long-term consequences of smoking, a habit that women took up in large numbers decades after men did, and the slowing of the historic decline in heart disease deaths.
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=222&topic_id=34889Wealth Lowers Stroke Risk, No SurpriseApril 24, 2008 04:13 PM ET | Michelle Andrews | Permanent Link
Money can't buy you love or happiness, but it may protect you from having a stroke. That's the takeaway from a new study in the journal Stroke, released today. Researchers found that the least wealthy were three times more likely to have a stroke between ages 50 and 64 compared with those who were in the top 75th to 89th percentile in wealth (the very wealthiest outliers were excluded). Once people hit 65, however, all bets were off, and wealth no longer afforded them protection.
The study examined the effect of education, income (annual earnings), and wealth (all housing and financial assets) on nearly 20,000 participants in the ongoing University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study. It's the first study to find that wealth predicts stroke incidence independently of income and education, according to Mauricio Avendano, a research fellow in public health at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and coauthor of the study, in a press release announcing the findings.
Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, striking some 780,000 people annually. The idea that people who are better off are less likely to have a stroke—however you define "better off"—doesn't set off any surprise bells. We know that people lower on the socioeconomic scale tend to smoke, be overweight, consume alcohol, and suffer from diabetes in greater numbers than those with more resources. These are all risk factors for stroke. Along similar lines, the study found that subjects ages 50 to 74 who had less income, wealth, or education had higher rates of high blood pressure, smoking, low physical activity, heart disease, diabetes and being overweight—stroke risk factors all.
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http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-health-and-money/2008/04/24/wealth-lowers-stroke-risk-no-surprise.htmlStudy spotlights bleak effects of povertyElizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, April 18, 2008
(04-17) 21:37 PDT Oakland -- A black child in West Oakland is much more likely to be born prematurely and into poverty than a white child in the Oakland hills. In school, he's less likely to read at grade level and more likely to drop out.
As an adult, he's more prone to diabetes, heart disease, cancer or stroke. And he can expect to die nearly 15 years earlier.
Illustrating the profound societal impact of chronic poverty, a new report released Thursday by the Alameda County Public Health Department documents health disparities by neighborhood, income and race. It highlights a widening social, economic and health gap in the county - as poverty goes up, life expectancy goes down.
"The data are overwhelming," said Dr. Tony Iton, the county's public health director. "It is shocking. It is not unique to West Oakland. You see it in Bayview-Hunters Point, in Richmond, in Cleveland and Detroit."
A variety of factors, he said, affect whether a person thrives or doesn't - education, income, transportation, housing, criminal justice, air quality, exercise, access to nutritious food or health care. Toxic stressors such as poverty, racism and discrimination cause a cumulative physical impact "that affects the body over time and leads to fewer years of life," he said.
more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/18/MN8K107HDN.DTL