For every 100,000 people living in new Mexico in 2016, 1,466 years of life were lost due to heart disease. Although heart disease is the No. 1 killer in America, new Mexico is actually below average on mortality from heart disease. So why is new Mexico life expectancy is ranked # 38 among the States of the United States? Again, the picture is 100 000 new Mexicans. They lost 852 years with the consequences of drug abuse. Nine hundred and three years before the harm. And 328 years of living with liver disease.
These findings, reported in the interstate analysis the annual global burden of disease survey, published on Tuesday, can teach us something important: from the point of view of health, it is location, location, location; all States are not created equal.
Shares/Getty ImagesAlbuquerque, N. M. is pictured in this undated photo.
Where do we live longer? The shortest?
Countries with long life expectancy are Hawaii, California, Connecticut, Minnesota, new York, Massachusetts, Colorado, new Jersey and Washington. Those with the highest rates of premature death are Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky.
Now Hawaii has the highest life expectancy at birth: an impressive 81.3 years. If Hawaii were a country, it would rank No. 20 in the world. On the other hand, some of the lowest levels of life expectancy in Mississippi, 74.7 years, landed a right state at No. 76, tied with Kuwait. While some have made great strides in extending the lives of its citizens. Washington, D.C., has achieved a 42 percent improvement in years of life lost as a result of illness and disability, while Oklahoma saw a measly increase of 6.3%.
Even more striking, 21 States actually saw high mortality rates among the adult population of working age in 2016 than in 1990. The main reason of this shift? The drug and alcohol abuse, liver disease and self-harm. These so-called diseases of despair associated with drug addiction, mental illness and low socio-economic status, are on the rise, killing people at a younger age than heart disease did. While the trends of different disease States, a dramatic turn of events in these States are a national problem, and to serve as a warning to the rest of the nation.
Shares/Getty ImagesAn undated photo Alamogordo, N. M.
Trends in mortality rates in the country
The good news? The overall mortality rate in the US declined in the period 1990 to 2016. The bad news? The average U.S. life expectancy at birth, which increased in 1993, dropped in 2015 and in 2016. Our success in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and survival rates of preterm infants is balanced by the next generation of preventable deadly diseases: drug addiction, self-mutilation, hepatic failure and chronic kidney disease. The growth of chronic kidney disease may be largely due to the increasing prevalence of diabetes, associated with obesity. The rest? Those diseases out of desperation, rooted in dependence and mental illness.
These results add to the wealth of recent data to support and enhance the efforts and evolving to focus on preventive health care. We see the positive results of the screening for risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. No longer using drugs such as statins and blood pressure pills to prolong the life of heart disease or delay its onset. We created a state-of-the-art treatment methods to help premature babies and cancer patients to survive to celebrate many more birthdays.
Looking in the direction of prevent more premature deaths
The consistent focus of public health remains the problem of obesity. Despite the improvement of cardiovascular diseases, obesity remains a major factor for many of the 20 leading causes of death and disability, especially diabetes and related risk of heart disease and kidney failure, stroke, neurological disorders and blindness. Initiatives aimed at improving diet and exercise habits of Americans, in order to prevent health consequences of obesity should and will continue.
The next step, it seems, referring to the underrated the risks of disability and death resulting from the consumption of drugs and mental illness. Efforts of awareness and dedicated resources at the community level can get to the root of the problem and to prevent these diseases from plaguing the next generation as they do today.
We also have some underutilized resources. Naloxone (Narcan, Evzio) may be used by any bystander, to reverse the effects of opioid overdose, but few know of its salutary effect, or that many States have implemented programs that allow people to buy it at the drugstore. Medication for the treatment of hepatitis C (often contracted via intravenous drug use) and to prevent further liver disease, many diagnosed do not seek this therapy and some who want do not qualify for insurance.
The global study of the burden of disease has provided the United States and the leaders of the 50 States with a large amount of information to the target generation of healthy Americans and a healthy life. Now the burden is on us to put this information to use.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
