Posted on 06/14/2012 1:08:31 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
While life expectancy in many parts of the United States is dropping, it has increased by 10 years in Manhattan since 1987. Researchers largely attribute that rise — the fastest in the nation — to a crackdown by the New York City health department on unhealthy behaviors.
Manhattanites can now expect to live to the ripe old age of 82, and the average life expectancy across all five New York City boroughs is 80.6 years. That's three years beyond the national average, and a striking turnaround since the city's low point in 1990, when life expectancy there trailed the U.S. average by three years.
The numbers come from researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Heath Metrics and Evaluation, who recently estimated the life expectancies in all 3,147 independent American cities and counties each year from 1987 through 2009. Even with New York's success, the IHME team found life expectancy in the country as a whole lengthened just 1.7 years per decade, a slower pace of progress than in the world's most long-lived countries. (The United States ranks 50th in that regard, according to the CIA World Fact Book.)
So, why is New York doing so well, and how can other U.S. cities get their residents' longevities up to speed? [Infographic: A Day in the Life of the Average American]
According to the British medical journal The Lancet, most gains made during the 1990s aren't replicable elsewhere. The city ramped up its life expectancy by reining in homicide rates and HIV/AIDS-related mortality, both of which had weighed down the average at the beginning of the decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Natalie is a scientific illiterate. Of course it’s the demographics of old people choosing to live in an oldster-convenient place, not actually people living longer just because they live in NYC. What an idiot.
This is a complete crock of shiite. Every decadent thing one can think of is performed in NYC in spades. The obvious reason for the longevity is the affluence of a large segment of the populace that can afford anything they want. And, more power to ‘em...Lies, statistics and damn lies....
The connotation of crackdown befits the police state mentality of Bloomberg. Didn't Bloomberg recently say something to the effect that it was government's purpose to take care of the health of its people. Use of the possessive pronoun to describe the relationship of government to people is commonplace with liberals. Perhaps one day the health police will walk people on leashes to make sure they get their exercise. The benefits of living in Bloomberg's Dog Kennel just mount with every idea he imposes.
The absence of scientific objectivity from this article is not surprising because it is a propaganda piece. If we would all be good little pets, we could all live a few years longer.
Manhattan below 110th Street is one of the wealthiest areas in the United States, with a per capita income above $100,000. (The rest of NYC is a fraction of that. NYC's overall median is less than New York State's median.)
Rich people (everywhere, not just in NYC) live longer than poor people. For many of the same reasons that they are rich people, and not poor people. They make better use of the information that is widely available to them.
One can live very well in Manhattan, but it takes a lot of money! That's why most in the middle need to commute in from the suburbs.
Well, I do want to live longer.
But not in NYC.
Hey, I was born in NY, and grew up upstate, have seen almost all of it.
Finger Lakes, Niagara Falls, the Adirondacks, Thousand Islands, NYC, Longggg Giland,,,
New York is shaped like a foot, and NYC is the heel!
And something like 100 people/day die in car accidents in this country so NYC is going to below average in that category.
people don’t live longer in NYC...
they’re just kept on the voting rolls a few years after they die
LLS
Having lived in Manhattan myself for 8 years:
You pretty much walk to everything and climb a lot of stairs. Those two things alone really make a difference. You don’t see a lot of very overweight people.
For those who mentioned subways after 6:00pm, etc., mugging, etc. - the city’s crime rate is much lower than the other major cities. That stereotype went out a long time ago. I live in Boca Raton now and I wouldn’t dream of going to Miami at night.
The rest is probably statistical noise. It certainly has nothing to do with the nanny Bloomberg initiatives.
Exactly. This has more to do with access to cutting edge medical technology than banning "sugary drinks."
The mistake that Bloomberg and the rest of the nannies make is transforming the conservative advice of "you shouldn't do that!" to "you can't do that!" (Well, of course you can do that; it may be awkward or illegal, it may be a bad idea, but you still can drink 64 ounces of soda.)
May as well attribute it to rent control. Those old folks ain’t giving up their $130 month apartment.
I just got back from six days in NYC. Fell in love with it!
Six days is not enough to see everything!
And yet, even the cabbies said they loved NY, but wish they lived somewhere else.
Thanks for the ping!
Contrary to popular belief, the "thug element" does not "grip New York." New York has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, crime rates of any large city. Even that number is exaggerated by some very rough neighborhoods (Brownsville, East New York, Hunts Point, etc.) that skew the crime numbers. Most of NYC is extremely safe, even at night.
Mass transit is a breeding ground for that type as witnessed by Bernard Goetz who was accosted by what we now euphemistically call the "Amish".
The Bernard Goetz shooting occurred nearly 30 years ago. Times have changed. I regularly have to work late and often take the subway late at night, and I've never encountered (or witnessed) a problem.
I'm old (just shy of 70) and I wouldn't visit much less live in New York City because of the criminals and the leftists (but I repeat myself) swarming over the Five Boroughs, maybe not as much in Staten Island.
I happen to think you're missing out, it's a pretty good city, though it's not for everyone and you certainly have to have a thick skin, politlcally (for instance, where I live, every local, state and federal representative is a Dem). I also think you're mistaken that criminals are "swarming over the Five Boroughs" (incidentally, there are some really rough parts of Staten Island as well)
You won’t actually live longer if you move to NYC...but it’ll sure FEEL like it, LOL!
*BA-DUMP-DUMP* Thanks! I’ll be here all week. Try the veal and don’t forget to tip your Waitress! ;)
Well howdy, look who the cat drug in!!!!!!
No one will ever die in NYC.
Glad you enjoyed it. Sometimes I look around me and I still can’t believe I live here. It still has all its magic, plus now the special feeling of being home.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.