New Year’s Resolution: Don’t die young!
As Americans focus on implementing their New Year’s resolutions, the motivating factor should be more than trimming one’s waist line. People need to start exercising in order to stay alive. For the first time since the early 1990s, life expectancy rates in the U.S. have declined. In other words, Americans are not living as long as they used to live. According to a recent story by National Public Radio, the statistics are sad and disturbing.
For children born in 2016, their life expectancy has dropped from 78.9 years to 78.8 years. For the average man, his life expectancy has fallen from 76.5 years to 76.3 years. For women, their life span is also on the decline – going from 81.3 years to 81.2 years.
Anne Case, an economist at Princeton University who was quoted in the National Public Radio story, has studied the connection between economics and health. Her prognosis of the current health situation in the US was brief and to the point.
“It’s pretty grim,” summarized Case.
