Contrary to media hype and the posturing of politicians, Ebola and ISIS are very unlikely to cause our early deaths. More likely to shorten American lives are some unhealthy behaviors that are actually somewhat under our control, like overeating to the point of obesity and overdosing on drugs.
A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research offers good news and bad news. First the good: Americans are smoking less, driving more safely and have reduced their alcohol consumption, leading to longer lives. On the downside, these gains in life expectancy have been nearly completely offset by increasing rates of obesity, increased deaths by firearms and a significant spike in deaths by poisoning (mostly, prescription drug overdoses). In a nutshell, between 1960 to 2010, Americans gained 1.82 years of life expectancy. During the same timeframe, increases in obesity rates and poisonous substance deaths cut life expectancy by 1.77 years.
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