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A study by researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London has found that depression is as much of a risk factor for mortality as smoking. Utilising a unique link between a survey of over 60,000 people and a comprehensive mortality database, the researchers found that over the four years following the survey, the mortality risk was increased to a similar extent in people who were depressed as in people who were smokers...

Statistics, even at their best, don't tell a whole story. A variety of people employ medical statistics dubiously to push pet causes. A perfect example: infant mortality statistics. The officially reported U.S. infant mortality rate has been indisputably high compared with similarly industrialized countries since at least the 1920s. That fact has led to public health officials in the U.S. to conclude the rates are "caused" by poorly distributed health care resources and can be "solved" with a socialized, government-run health care system. However, there's a basic problem with the numbers: Different countries count differently. According to the World Health...

From Fox: Though the United States has by far the highest level of health care spending per capita in the world, we have one of the lowest life expectancies among developed nations Everybody else skews their data. It's not a reflection on our system. Here: "Doctors told me it was against the rules to save my premature baby" Instead, doctors told her to treat the labour as a miscarriage, not a birth, and to expect her baby to be born with serious deformities or even to be still-born. The doctor didn't just come up with that out of thin air,...

On September 22, 1993, President Clinton, in an impassioned address to a joint session of Congress, unveiled his Health Security Act to the American people. He laid out six principles: security, simplicity, savings, choice, quality and responsibility, and explained in unambiguous language how each of these principles were embodied in the Health Security Act. Clinton, despite his failings, which were only human failings, had something that Obama didn’t have although he thought he did and many in the media gave him credit for having. Clinton truly had a transformational vision for health care and that vision was masterfully expressed in...

Could a pill one day slow ageing in humans?Punchstock Rapamycin, a drug commonly used in humans to prevent transplanted organs from being rejected, has been found to extend the lives of mice by up to 14% — even when given to the mice late in life. In flies and worms, drug treatments have been shown to prolong lifespan, but until now, the only robust way to extend life in mammals has been to heavily restrict diet. The researchers caution, however, that using this drug to extend the lifespan of humans might be problematic because it suppresses the immune system —...

"How fevered is the man who cannot look Upon his mortal days with temperate blood, Who vexes all the leaves of his life's book, And robs his fair name of its maidenhood..."; So wrote English poet John Keats in "On Fame." It's worth re-reading as we overindulge in the recent deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Ed McMahon's death the same week received somewhat less coverage because he was neither beautiful, nor weird, though he qualified as a celebrity. At least McMahon served in two wars as a Marine, which was a real accomplishment. What is it about celebrity...

WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2009 (Health.com) — The death rate due to cancer has declined in the United States in recent years, largely due to better prevention and treatment. In fact, 650,000 lives were spared from cancer between 1990 to 2005, according to new statistics from the American Cancer Society. During the 15-year period, the cancer death rate among men dropped by 19.2%, mainly due to decreases in lung, prostate, and colon cancer deaths. In women, the cancer death rate fell by 11.4%, largely due to a drop in breast and colorectal cancer deaths. “This is good news because cancer death...

Watch Video Poem. (Short parody about atheists' "transhumanism" movement.) Doctor came in sad faced Said he had bad news for me "Cancer's spread throughout you It's metastasized, you see?" "Doc, I got it covered I don't need this old body. Know a friend on Venus Who can make a trade with me. I'll have a new body And outlive my grand baby. Don't you call it crazy. Call it transhumanity." Tell me would you want to Live beyond two hundred years? Still feel like you're twenty And escape an old man's fears? You'll stay young and happy And forget all...

CHICAGO – The largest study of its kind finds that older Americans who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats face a greater risk of death from heart disease and cancer. The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts. Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat...

Last week, the National Center for Health Statistics announced that the average life expectancy for Americans has risen to an all-time high of 78 years. In addition, record high life expectancy was recorded for both white males and black males (76 years and 70 years, respectively) as well as for white females and black females (81 years and 76.9 years). This is obviously good news. But a question nags—why are people in other countries living longer on average than Americans? After all, we are the country that spends the most money per capita on health care. For example, according to...

Americans were shocked on Tuesday to read the results of a study by four scientists affiliated to the Initiative for Global Health at Harvard University.* Since 1983 life expectancy has declined for women in hundreds of US counties, most of them in the south, and for men in a dozen counties. Two troubling explanations arise. The first is that, for reasons that are not yet clear, health is deteriorating in the US. Such things happen. In alcohol-soaked post-communist Russia men die at about the age of 59. In Aids-ravaged Namibia the lifespan has dropped 10 years since independence in 1990....

The rate at which infants die in the United States has dropped substantially over the past half-century, but broad disparities remain among racial groups, and the country stacks up poorly next to other industrialized nations. In 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, roughly seven babies died for every 1,000 live births before reaching their first birthday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. That was down from about 26 in 1960. Babies born to black mothers died at two and a half times the rate of those born to white mothers, according to the CDC...

All men are mortal but few give it much thought. The round of daily tasks, diversions of various sorts, keep the thought at bay. So much so that the death of another can come almost as a surprise and seem a breach in the natural order of things. We have to put our minds to it really to think that we shall some day die. Poets and philosophers seem to relish this task. Death in Homer is a vast subject but the abiding theme is that death is a gloomy disaster. It would be better if it were an utter...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries. For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles. Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands. "Something's wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries," said Dr. Christopher Murray, head of the Institute...

Why is it that Americans speak of trying to whip cancer, show courage in the face of it, and die after a long battle against it? Why at the same time do we tell ourselves cancer is the new diabetes, a chronic disease we can have for a lifetime? It's because what F. Scott Fitzgerald said about the rich -- "They are different from you and me" -- is true of cancer among the multitude of bodily afflictions. We think it's different, too. We take cancer personally. We talk about it in terms we would never use for heart disease,...

Vitamin supplements taken by millions of people every day for their health could be increasing their risk of death a new Danish-led study suggests. The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The international research team reviewed the published evidence on beta carotene, vitamin A, vitamin E, Vitamin C and selenium. The team was led by Dr Goran Bjelakovic, from Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. These dietary supplements are marketed as antioxidants and people take them in the hope they will improve health and guard against diseases like cancer and heart disease by eliminating the free radicals...

Massachusetts health officials have decided to publicize the patient death rates for individual heart surgeons, the first time the state will release information on the quality of care provided by individual doctors --not just by hospitals and physicians' groups . Beginning Dec. 18, it will be possible to go to a website and look up the mortality rates for 55 surgeons who perform cardiac bypass operations. About 4,000 patients had bypass surgery at 14 Massachusetts hospitals in 2004, according to the state's most recent figures. It is one of the most common operations. [...] In New York, where mortality data...

Dear Colleague, One of the old chestnuts of the pro-abortion movement has turned rotten. They say laws against abortion result in higher maternal mortality. New statistics direct from the UN indicate they couldn't be more wrong. In fact, it seems pro-life nations actually have lower maternal mortality rates. This information must be used immediately by everyone concerned about this issue but particularly by those in countries where abortion is against the law: Ireland and Poland especially. Spread the word far and wide. Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse President Action Item: Read the report here.UN Data Show Banning Abortion Doesn't Increase...

See link for pdf file containing mortality rates for Louisiana on a Parish by Parish basis. Use this to compare Katrina related death count versus normal.

Bill Clinton didn't ask for my help, but I thought I would volunteer. If I were about to undergo more surgery, I would worry about my mortality and try to make peace with my Maker. Bill, for the sake of your soul, sign this and get it sent out. ===================================================== My fellow Americans, thank you for your kind words and prayers as I am about to again undergo surgery. Because God has given me a second chance, I must clear my conscience. I am so sorry that I disappointed many of my fans. But more than that, I am sorry...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 - When the federal government assesses the long-term financial problems of Social Security, it assumes that increases in life expectancy will be slow and measured. But many population experts say they believe that Americans' life expectancy will increase rapidly in the 21st century, making the program's financial problems even worse. President Bush and Congress are preparing for a debate over the future of Social Security, whose solvency depends not only on factors including productivity, inflation and birth rates but also on how long beneficiaries will be living. Life expectancy at birth increased by 30 years in the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Christmas is the deadliest day of the year for Americans with 12.4 percent more deaths than normal, researchers said on Monday. More Americans die from heart attacks and other natural causes on Christmas, the day after and on New Year's Day than on any other days of the year, the researchers reported. It is probably because people are feeling too busy or too festive to go to the hospital over the winter holiday season, the researchers wrote in Monday's issue of the journal Circulation. The researchers, sociologist David Phillips of the University of California San Diego and...

For Kim and North Korea, a sign of mortality By David Scofield SEOUL - Disaster of enormous but still unknown proportions struck North Korea nine hours after Kim Jong-il's heavily guarded train re-entered the Hermit Kingdom and passed through Ryongchon station, 20 kilometers south of the Chinese border. The Dear Leader had returned from "secret" talks with China on defusing the Pyongyang nuclear crisis, gradually giving up his weapons of mass destruction in exchange for massive economic and food aid, clean energy and a better life for his people. The outcome of the talks was not known. Then, it happened:...

Sorry for the vanity, folks, but I have been doing google searches for some information on national child morality rates and their causes and my results are listing state and local statistics - can anyone tell me a good resources for statistics about child mortality rates? Thanks

The World Health Organization today sharply raised its estimate of the SARS death rate to 14-15 percent. The disease is much worse for people older than 65, with more than half likely to die. In Washington, U.S. health officials said they were taking steps to contain severe acute respiratory syndrome, including preparing for a larger outbreak in the country. WHO originally estimate the death rate at 6 percent, then up to 10 percent. The latest revision is based on a more detailed analysis of data from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam. Good News for the Young and Healthy...

Men are more than twice as likely as women to die during thunderstorms, mainly because they do not come in from the rain, new research suggests. A new study of more than 1,400 thunderstorm-related deaths in the United States found 70% of the victims were male. The gender disparity was particularly pronounced among deaths caused by lightning strikes and flash floods. Close to 80% of the lightning victims were men, said Dr. Thomas Songer of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Injury Research. Canadian numbers support the theory. According to Statistics Canada, 34 men died after being struck by lightning...

Abortion Increases Women's Mortality Rate Springfield, IL -- A study published in the latest issue of the Southern Medical Journal reveals that women who have abortions are at significantly higher risk of death than women who give birth. This finding contradicts the widely accepted opinion that abortion is safer than childbirth. Researchers examined death records linked to Medi-Cal payments for births and abortions for approximately 173,000 low income Californian women. They discovered that women who had abortions were almost twice as likely to die in the following two years and that the elevated mortality rate of aborting women persisted over...

New study shows AIDS drugs equally effective as poverty and malnutrition. Rodney Richards, Ph.D. Summary: Median time from seroconversion to AIDS and death in poor, starving rural Africans (without access to health care, purified water or electricity) living in the Masaka District of Uganda (where malaria, dysentery and measles are endemic) is no different than that observed in Europeans, North Americans, or Australians who have full access to proper nutrition, health-care, "life-prolonging" antiretrovirals, and prophylaxis against opportunistic infections (OI)! Conclusion: These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that antiretrovirals are killing people just as fast as poverty and malnutrition....