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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

Posted on 11/07/2015 6:08:40 AM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: health; middleage
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To: rickmichaels

I work in an inner city type of hospital. The white middle class is sliding into poverty. mainly due to the loss of blue collar jobs. They go on welfare, drink and take drugs. I also see a high amount of people on prescription pain meds. You don’t see that in the Hispanic or Asian population. That is why they are dying young.


121 posted on 11/07/2015 12:29:02 PM PST by kaila
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To: baltiless
Hang in there and work with your Doctor to do whatever you can to keep the BP down. Don't know if he has you on anticoagulants or a baby aspirin, but check with him if not. Keep sugar and salt to a minimum. Garlic and Hawthorne may help too plus a Multivitamin with Minerals once a day after breakfast.

One way of looking at things if you've been to hell and back and survived. That takes a good basic constitution. The old "What doesn't kill ya', makes you stronger." So seize the day and do what you can to keep that Blood Pressure as normal as you can. Hang in there!

P.S. There are cardiologists that are "Blood Pressure Gods" so to speak where Blood Pressure is there thing. If you feel you've tried every BP med or combo, ask your doctor maybe if okay to get a second opinion and Who would He recommend, like, who would He go to if same same. . Blood Pressure is a real sub-specialty. . and very complicated with the med combos. . I bet there is a combo that would work in your case though. .

122 posted on 11/07/2015 12:31:25 PM PST by Art in Idaho (Conservatism is the only Hope for Western Civilization.)
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To: 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.

My wife and I are in our mid 70's, and we saw many people we knew, die in their 40s/50s. Alcohol abuse was a major factor.

Now, our adult children, nephews and nieces in their 40s/50s/ are seeing the same re people they knew.

123 posted on 11/07/2015 1:36:31 PM PST by Grampa Dave ("If you use FR and don't donate. That means that you are a Left Wing or Rino plant, to be ignored!)
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To: Art in Idaho; Old Sarge; null and void; Velveeta; Myrddin; Califreak; Salvation; ...
Five theories about why middle-aged, white Americans are dying at such shockingly high rates

Check out article and # 118 .

Thanks Art In Idaho.

124 posted on 11/07/2015 1:42:51 PM PST by LucyT
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To: Jonty30

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

Add to that — that these people have put God out of their lives.


125 posted on 11/07/2015 1:56:17 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: rickmichaels

The nation’s opioid epidemic. “Deaths from drug overdoses among people aged 45 through 64 increased 11-fold between 1990 and 2010, and nearly 90 percent of people who try heroin for the first time these days are white,” the Atlantic noted.

Alcohol poisoning. More than 2,200 Americans die a year after consuming too much alcohol and three-fourths are ages 35 to 64, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the Daily Mail, “While death rates related to drugs, alcohol and suicides have risen for middle-aged whites across the board, the largest surge are seen among those with the least education.

Suicide. The Case-Deaton study noted that poisonings overtook lung cancer as a leading cause of death in 2011 in this age group and that suicide rates were headed in that direction, as well.

The end of the American dream? With the disappearance of stable jobs in manufacturing and construction over the years, many people with only a high school education may not have as many opportunities as they may have had a generation ago. Surveys have shown that about half of middle-aged Americans have not been able to save enough money for retirement. Many in this generation are “the first to find, in midlife, that they will not be better off than their parents,” the authors wrote.

Breakdown of family support networks. The divorce rate among those over age 50 has doubled — to one out of every four people — at a time when divorce rates for other age groups have stabilized or dropped. In a new book about white America, Charles Murray shows how “marriage has become the fault line dividing America’s classes.”


126 posted on 11/07/2015 2:01:28 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: PoloSec

**Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Believe the Gospel: how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

People are dying at alarming rates because they have no foundation they are empty vessels searching to fill there voided life with anything other than: the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ!**

“My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

People have lost their hope in God.


127 posted on 11/07/2015 2:03:37 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: PoloSec

Amen


128 posted on 11/07/2015 2:05:06 PM PST by jbb247
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To: Tax-chick

Could you also add abortion to your list. The stress it puts on both the man and the woman is horrendous.


129 posted on 11/07/2015 2:08:17 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Grampa Dave

Wow! What schedules. They are fortunate to have grandparents like you.


130 posted on 11/07/2015 2:19:24 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation

Yes, that’s true, but I don’t know if abortion has been linked to stroke by medical research. The link with hormonal contraceptives for women is very strong, especially if the women are smokers.

I think abortion is very much an “underground” feature in the environment that has produced these death rates. It’s a factor in family breakup or the non-formation of families. It’s a factor in the economic situation that has marginalized minimally-educated white people. It’s a factor in the depression that contributes to alcoholism or drug abuse.


131 posted on 11/07/2015 2:20:00 PM PST by Tax-chick (You have 21 days to get ready for the Advent Kitteh!)
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To: LucyT

You’re welcome LucyT.


132 posted on 11/07/2015 2:33:32 PM PST by Art in Idaho (Conservatism is the only Hope for Western Civilization.)
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To: Vermont Lt

Not if you worked in an ER.


133 posted on 11/07/2015 2:48:55 PM PST by doberville
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To: Salvation

Their schedules are incredible.

Even when they were in grade school, their after school schedule was tough.

Once a month we went down to pick up our grandson and ride herd on he and his peers for a hour, until his sister got out. If they had been good kids, we took them to get an ice cream treat. Then drop off to their after school events.

Later fix dinner or buy it for them and their mom. We tried to do this on days our son would be out of town or working late. We did this so our DIL could have a free afternoon.

Over the years, we met grandparents who moved from other cities or states to help with the grandkid activities after school and on weekends.


134 posted on 11/07/2015 2:55:20 PM PST by Grampa Dave ("If you use FR and don't donate. That means that you are a Left Wing or Rino plant, to be ignored!)
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To: baltiless

And that is all any of us can hope for...
Bless you and I wish you peace....


135 posted on 11/07/2015 2:57:52 PM PST by matginzac
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To: sagar
I added a little bit to your sage advice:

Those who do not take responsibility and practice self control, are bound to suffer in health, wealth, and relationships. Sorry for the blunt retort.

136 posted on 11/07/2015 3:06:13 PM PST by Grampa Dave ("If you use FR and don't donate. That means that you are a Left Wing or Rino plant, to be ignored!)
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To: Bryanw92
Vacation? Oh ya, I remember now. That was something I last did in 2007. Scheduling the next one in April 2016. Didn't want to wait the normal ten years.
137 posted on 11/07/2015 3:36:24 PM PST by ASA Vet (PMOS - 98C40K3, SMOS - 96B40, AMOS - 32G)
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To: Art in Idaho

Art your a Gem :)


138 posted on 11/07/2015 3:53:16 PM PST by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))
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To: sagar

I will tell my uncle that when I get to heaven, the guy in the other lane who crossed over in a head on collision.

I will tell my sister in law that, her newborn was born brainless and died in her arms within the hour.

I will tell ...


139 posted on 11/07/2015 3:57:14 PM PST by Chickensoup (We lose our freedoms one surrender at a time)
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To: Grampa Dave

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.

______________

Crazy schedule, and know something? It doesn’t do the kids any good. Kids need to be socializing slowly with friends, not teammates, who often are not friends. Childhood is about development of the core, the self, the soul.


140 posted on 11/07/2015 4:06:39 PM PST by Chickensoup (We lose our freedoms one surrender at a time)
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