Five theories about why middle-aged, white Americans are dying at such shockingly high rates

National Post ^ | November 6, 2015 | Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post

[rickmichaels]

"Half a million people are dead who should not be dead," Angus Deaton, the 2015 Nobel laureate in economics told my Post colleagues Lenny Bernstein and Joel Achenbach.

Deaton, an economics professor at Princeton, was talking about the stunning finding that he and his wife, Anne Case, made while analyzing U.S. death data from the past few decades. The researchers found that the mortality rate for white men and women ages 45 to 54 with less than a college education took a sharp turn upward in 1999 - a disconcerting reversal that has been virtually unheard of in advanced countries.

To put that number into perspective, Deaton estimates that a half-million deaths is "about 40 times the Ebola stats." He added, "You're getting up there with HIV-AIDS."

The couple's study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, offered a number of possible reasons that this might be happening. And since its publication, other experts have weighed in on other trends that might explain this phenomenon. Below is a look at five of their theories. Many of them have to do more with psychological distress than traditional causes of death such as heart disease or lung cancer.

[MarMema]

Holy everything!!! I am amazed you survived the dissection. At work those are our worst nightmare ed dx.

May God be with you.
I think you may have more time than you think, though.
You already had your share of bad luck and then some.

500 mgs of mag orotate daily is my personal recommendation to you and do get the orotate, not the others. Amazon has it.

[MarMema]

I read about that island. Thanks for the link.

[baltiless]

I’m a musician and a poet. And I don’t say that pretentiously, I really am. As you might imagine, many of my heroes died early and many by misadventure. Jerry Garcia, John Lennon, Otis Redding,Lester Bangs, Sam Cooke, Dylan Thomas, Neil Cassady, and on and on. (Note, this obviously has nothing to do with my political heroes, of whom there are very few.) The only people who’ve lived to a ripe old age who I really love are Dylan and McCartney. And, yeah, I’m glad they’re still around.

But I got it into my head many years ago that it was perfectly acceptable to die young so long as you had fun and were more or less satisfied with the contributions you’ve made. I’ve had a boatload of fun, and while I’m certainly no Jerry Garcia, I like to think I’ve touched people on some level and influenced some lives positively. If I go tomorrow, it will be without regret.

[baltiless]

When I started having my wits about me again, I read up on dissections. Forty percent of people die more or less instantly, and of the sixty percent who don’t, about a quarter die on the operating table. Sobering stuff. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing even writing this message.

[Tax-chick]

The article doesn’t really offer “five theories.” At most it’s two theories - family breakdown and economic decline - which are interrelated. The other “theories” cited - suicide, alcoholism, and drug abuse - are symptomatic of something else.

[MarMema]

The worst is behind you.

Some people think a bad medical experience is dooming but statistically it is just the opposite. Having survived it, you are now probably ahead of the game. Hope this makes sense.

[baltiless]

Well, here’s why I’m a bit relaxed about accepting the inevitable: The reason for the dissection, I’m told (and I believe), was because I had cartoonishly high blood pressure and never did a thing about it. Since the dissection, I’ve been on all manner of BP meds and absolutely nothing brings it down significantly, or at all. So I have little choice but to assume it’s going to happen again in the not too distant future.

I don’t say that AT ALL to be a downer. I just focus on appreciating the days I have and the ones I love.

[baltiless]

Actually, they’re probably symptomatic of the other two...

[Tax-chick]

That’s highly probable, but I left it open for other factors.

[Enlightened1]

DING!!!! DING!!! DING!!!!

Nailed it, but most people unfortunately are in denial!

It’s Alex Huxley, “Brave New World” becoming a reality.

It’s very sad to watch.

[Grampa Dave]

With the insane schedules they keep on their 24 hr. treadmill, I am surprised the children do not have strokes before they get out of high school!

A couple of years ago, we took care of our teenage grandkids for a week while their parents went to Hawaii for a work and play time.

Our son told me when we got in the door, that our grandson had three travel baseball games the next day/Saturday. The first one was at 8 am and we had to be there for practice at 7 am. Fortunately, the ball park was only 30 miles away.

In the meantime my wife was with our DIL going over their schedule board a white board, with the 7 days a week across the top with time periods from 6 am to 9 pm on the side. School time was about the only unscheduled time. When I saw the white schedul board, I told my wife, we could have ran a good size Navy ship when I was in the Navy with that board.

During the day, my wife and I did household chores until the hell time after school.

Their after school schedules were incredible. They went to different schools and got out at different times and went to different after school events. One day was incredible. I dropped them and their friends off at school in the morning. That afternoon I picked up my grandson and a friend after school and drove a few miles in traffic to drop them off at a Math Olympics meeting. Later my wife picked up our grand daughter and a friend and brought them home for snacks, study and getting them to a dance practice.

Our grandson called, and I picked him up and his neighbor to bring them to their homes for a snack and to change into their baseball gear for a practice session. I drove them to the ball field while my wife drove a couple of miles in the opposite direction to drop off our grand daughter. Then she drove to the ball field to watch the practice.

After the practice our grandson wanted to go to the local pizza place for a sit down pizza. We told him that we could do that. My wife ordered take out pizzas and took he and his friend to pick up the pizzas. In the meantime I went to a grocery store for food for the next day. After shopping I picked up my grand daughter and her friend and brought them back to my son's home.

We ate pizza, sent their friends home (they lived in the same cul de sac), had our grand kids shower, study and back to bed before the next day began.

[Enlightened1]

The liver is the ONLY organ that regenerates itself.

A Liver 80% gone can be saved by cutting out the booze and drugs.

The Medical Establishment will never tell you that though.

They rather just cut out most of your Liver instead of giving it a chance to recover.

[EEGator]

You should be a motivational speaker.

[fatima]

I have 6 children who are grown adults now.My rule was you could join one thing.If you quit it was on you.If you wanted to join something else you needed a ride to and from.

[sagar]

I am simply an observer. Those who do not take responsibility are bound to suffer in health, wealth, and relationships. Sorry for the blunt retort.

[Foundahardheadedwoman]

Amen! Repressed rage will kill you sooner or later but if you express that rage then you have real problems.

I have seen a lot of relatives and friends dying in their 40’s and 50’s, a ton of them from cancer, which I think is stress related.

I have found the only things that help me are hard physical labor and working out. I am in my 60’s now and am getting in the best physical shape that I can so that I can handle whatever may come my way.

[spokeshave]

In your surgury...did they use a heart recirculating machine...?

Is There Long-Term Brain Damage After Bypass Surgery ... www.hopkinsmedicine.org/.../is_there...

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Aug 3, 2009 - Brain scientists and cardiac surgeons at Johns Hopkins have evidence from 227 heart bypass surgery patients that long-term memory losses and cognitive problems they experience are due to the underlying coronary artery disease itself and not ill after-effects from having used a ...

[Art in Idaho]

The most likely reason is despair. Whites have taken a beating in the last thirty years in terms of employment.

It is hard on a person being pissed off all the time. If you are working to provide the Escalades, big screen teevees and smartphones for someone else you can't lavish on your own family, that gets to a person after a while. Yep, being continually pissed off is rough on a body. . . Let God, Let go, and outlive the b@st@rds.

Whites have also taken a “cultural” beatdown also with much of the media and establishment on a jihad to make whites feel guilty for the problems of others.

Actually, it is harder on a person repressing that rage.

Talking with my nurse co workers ,I was stunned at the number of them who have had strokes.

Most middle aged people are too fat and diabetes is a serious risk.

White people have had a target on their backs for at least a half century. We see the full fruition of this assault in such things as "white privilege", "white guilt", and "micro-aggresions" Those of us who are strong have been able to insulate ourselves from this cultural socio-economic assault, but if you are poor and uneducated, it would be easy to internalize all the negative messaging designed to degrade and undermine “whiteness,” producing a generalized sense of worthlessness and despair. Once so weakened, destructive lifestyle habits and negative self imaging creates the formula for early mortality.

I refuse to let the bastards wear me down.

Wow, do we all think alike or what. Yeah, we're all angry with repressed rage about lots of things. We all have to stay as healthy as we can though, for ourselves, family, God and country.

Ok, my 2 cents:

Go back to your Faith and follow the basics, 10 Commandments and Do unto Others, etc.

No drugs and only social drinking. Never more than two drinks a day. If your addicted, get help and explore religion.

The exercise crap - just walk and move, do stuff. Try and walk 10 minutes a day, 20 if your a health nut. : ) Stretch and move, make stuff. Muscles will atrophy if we don't move. . Also, the walking will lower your Blood Pressure. Just start! Even if it's two trips to the mail box!

Weight loss - move more and take less in. Or as a Doc friend of mine said, "Calories in, calories out." You want to take charge of both.

Avoid sugar as much as you can. It's in everything and contributes to weight gain and type II Adult Onset Diabetes.

Keep the Salt to a minimum. It's in everything too. Get LiteSalt, it's a combo of sodium and potassium chloride, you get half the sodium, the table salt. Okay with your Doctor though.

Basic vitamin regimen - I'm a nut on vitamins. Take a Multivitamin with Minerals, once a day after breakfast. Also, anti-oxidants, Vitamins C, E, some garlic, Coenzyme Q10, Turmeric, B50, (B-Complex) and Fish Oil. Take the bunch after breakfast and some vitamin C and Fish Oil after each meal if you remember. Vitamins better absorbed after a meal.

Melatonin 3-12mg at bedtime, helps the sleep cycle.

Biggest thing you can do is Control your Blood Pressure. Yeah, I know, lots of pressure and stress, anger, etc. The goal of 120/80 is no joke. If you need to take one or two BP meds to at least keep it 140/90 or thereabouts, do it. The biggest risk for us oldies is high blood pressure and diabetes. Get a Blood Pressure measuring machine for home use if you don't have one and check frequently. They don't cost much now, at Walmart or Walgreens. Blood pressure a tad higher in late afternoon, around 4-5 or so, so check it then and see how you're doing.

Statins - a mixed bag with lots of side effects. I had a memory 'episode' on them, lost 3-4 hours, so now take three times a week and no problem.

IF you don't have an allergy to aspirin and don't have a history of ulcers or any kind of bleeding disorder, everyone should be on a Baby Aspirin 81mg a day for the anti-coagulant effect - preventive for heart attacks and strokes. Get your Doc's okay though.

I used to tell adolescents: All Behavior has Consequences and Response Delay. Get out of the area for 5 minutes. . Sometimes helps to delay the bad choice.

With interpersonal stuff, marriage, kids, . and there's some issue. . there's a time and place to Drop It. It's just not worth it to hassle with it. Let it go and focus on making now better.

Slow Deep breathing and muscle relaxation exercises. Taking a slow deep breath lowers you blood pressure.

Simplify your life. Throw junk out, get a routine.

There's a wisdom in the early to bed, early to rise stuff.

Eat half of everything on your plate. This sounds gross, but sometimes I'll taste something, eat some and spit it out if high sugar or salt. You feel like you've tasted it so to speak but it's not more calories going in.

Go Fishing!

We all have to stay healthy. . Hey, we have Free Republic for comradery:

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." - T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.

and one last thing,

Enjoy Today!

[Rockingham]

There are studies that indicate that even when taken with care, statins do not on the average seem to result in longer life because deaths from other causes rise for those on statins. Most notably, deaths by accident and violence rise, apparently due to personality changes.

[Jackson Brown]

They don't keep any stats on long term effects of heavy drinking. I know some 15 friends (some) since high school who died from terminal liver issues - all big drinkers - in their 40s/50s.... the age range the article was about.

Drug deaths are tracked...cigarettes don't take most lives until 60s or older.