From Your Health Journal…..”LA Weekly had an outstanding article recently, and I encourage you all to visit their site (link provided below) to view the full article. This topic was about Americans under age 50 not really taking good care of themselves due to unwise choices, sedentary lifestyle, and poverty. The problem is not limited to people who are poor or uninsured, even Americans with health insurance, higher incomes, college education and healthy behaviors such as not smoking seem to be sicker than their counterparts in other countries. The bottom line, we need to start taking care of ourselves – starting today. Like the old saying, today is the first day of the rest of your life. Make a conscious effort to break some of the bad habits you have, and pass along healthy lifestyle to your children. Please visit the LA Weekly web site for the full story.”

From the article…..

Blame Stupid Choices, Too Much Driving and Sitting, and Poverty, Study Says

Everyone wants to live forever. But a study from USC and the National Academies suggests that if you’d like to see 51, it’s time a lot of people stopped acting stupid. Americans spend more on health care than anyone, but are less healthy, birth to death, than residents in other developed countries. In fact, death before 50 accounts for about two-thirds of the difference between U.S. male life expectancy and guys in other nations. For women, not as bad.

U.S. residents are more likely to prematurely die of anything and everything, and the causes for that include many lifestyle-driven diseases such as diabetes and HIV. Are they really so much more fit and careful in Europe?

Well, yes.

• Americans more commonly die in transportation accidents. The rate of death from violence is also significantly higher here, especially from firearms. Overall, the U.S. has the second-highest death rate from injuries (the outdoorsy types in icy Finland came in first).

• Americans are much more likely than people in peer countries to die from maternal conditions related to pregnancy. Since the 1990s, among high-income countries, U.S. teenagers have seen far higher rates of pregnancy. Add to that the fact that Americans are more likely to get sexually transmitted diseases.

• Though the incidence of AIDS has fallen in the last two decades, the U.S. still has the highest incidence among peer countries — and overall suffers the fourth-highest mortality from all communicable diseases (even worse off are Portugal, Japan and the U.K.).

To read the full article…..Click here