Another observation - wealthy Americans live like poor Europeans. Living somewhere where you have to drive everywhere is something that poor people have to do here. Eating manufactured unhealthy food - poor.
Another observation - wealthy Americans live like poor Europeans. Living somewhere where you have to drive everywhere is something that poor people have to do here. Eating manufactured unhealthy food - poor.
This does not exist in Europe. What your doctors recommend happens regardless of your income.
There is an image I see when in the US. A homeless person who is crippled and pushing themselves with a stick or one leg in a wheelchair. Lame thanks to lack of treatment. You never see that in Europe. Homeless people exist but they aren’t chronically ill.
This has positive effects for everyone. There is less disease in the environment and it’s easier for people to literally get back on their feet.
It’s a bit of wishful thinking to presume Americans poor health is all lifestyle choices and advertising. It’s the system and a pervasive lack of easy to access treatment at all levels of society.
People don't want or choose this system (unless they work for insurers), but their voice doesn't matter. No politicians can afford to oppose the health care industry. We need campaign finance regulation, investment in education, and public election platforms to shift away from this unhealthy way of life.
A lot of older Americans are "skinny fat". In that they might not appear obese, but their actual health compares to an obese sedentary person.
Add in the car centric culture, the obsession with luxury goods(beef is a luxury food), and the glorification of sedentary lifestyles, and you get olds who can barely walk for the last 20 years of their life.
We're also seeing a crazy uptick in people in their 20s coming down with heart diseases. I havent looked into that specific issue in a while but the leading theories were over consumption of caffeine and beef.
I grew up in rural America. I watched so many older people I knew come down with diabetes and heart issues in their 40s and early 50s. It meant they couldn't do much physically. A lot of older Americans, especially rural, spend their last 20 years trapped in their home because going outside is too much effort. In hindsight, and the data backs this up, it's clearly their diet. Americans glorify overconsumption of horrible foods. We made beef and meat a luxury good and encouraged it's over consumption by making it a "thing" successful people consumed every night.
I highly doubt it's caffeine, here in the Nordics we consume an absurd amount of coffee, and don't seem to experience a higher-than-average rate of heart disease in young adults.
1 in 3 American children drink at least one energy drink per day. 2/3rds of teens have had an energy drink within the last 3 months.
The US sees a weirdly high amount of hospitalizations related to energy drinks. It's a problem.
This stuff stresses the heart way more than necessary and by their early 20s a lot of kids are showing heart issues.
Just writing that, though, makes me realize that most of the northern sections of the US are inline with what we call western Europe? Would be neat to see this broken down by latitude as a crude cohort check.
A lot of Europe experiences longer days than PNW during spring to summer.