Eat your heart out, Yank

The Boston Globe ^ | May 15, 2006

[A. Pole]

MEDICAL researchers recently set heads to shaking on both sides of the Atlantic with a study showing that white, middle-aged English people are much healthier than white, middle-aged Americans. The English have less cancer, less high blood pressure, less heart disease and stroke, and less diabetes. To make sure that the difference was not just the result of stiff-upper-lip Brits keeping quiet about what ails them, the researchers also examined biological data, which confirmed the disparity.

The results are so striking because there is no ready explanation for them. Yes, the English have a national health insurance system and we don't, but the gap is just as great between wealthy Englanders and their wealthy US counterparts, nearly all of whom have insurance coverage. In both countries, health relates directly to wealth, but the richest third of Americans have as much heart disease and diabetes as the poorest third of the English. The study focused on persons aged 55 to 64 and included only non-Hispanic whites, to keep health problems related to race or ethnicity from skewing the findings.

[...]

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has prompted considerable speculation about the roots of American bad health. One theory is that it reflects the fact that Americans on average have fewer vacation days than the English, contributing to an unhealthy level of stress on this side of the Atlantic. The average American gets 12 days of vacation a year; the average British person gets 23.

[...]

[ExpatGator]

Waste not want not. Anyway we are what we eat.

Call me Ars..ole. Can I call you Kidney?

[CORedneck]

I left a miserable job back in Oct. The work wasn't bad, the manager I reported to was a f***en jerk ! He believed that vacation was on of those perks thats reserved to executive & mgt level people and mentioned it too. One time, I sent an e-mail out mentioning who was doing what while I was gone and CC'd him. I already sent an e-mail one month prior indicating the time off. There was no complaints, etc. from him. When he got the 2nd email concerning what is being done, he hit the roof. I got called into his office and was read the riot act. He then mentioned that vacation was a company benefit but it was a privilege to take when you want. He then kicked me out of his office and two days later, he called me in and mentioned that he is grudgingly granting the time off but he said that he was against the time off, he was pissed, etc. The other mgrs in the group had no problem with their people taking their vacation time.

I wonder why Americans die young from heart attacks and there is a high divorce rate. Since being in my new job, I taken several vacations and no one had a problem with me taking time off.

I think there are two items what makes our middle age people unhealthy. First, lack of time off and even with time off, our Puritan Work Ethic in a demented way looks down on those people who want time off to enjoy life. The basis is "idle hands are considered wicked". Second is our diet. With the processed food we eat along with fast food and the lack of quality time with families and home cooked meals.

>>Brits get to spend twice as much time with their
>>families and children - the family is a good thing
>>which should not come second to your work.

>Your statement will make some corporate types
angry. Americans do not need to have children
or family as it is cheaper to import next generation
of workers from the Third World countries - basic
Economics 101.

[ExpatGator]

What are the life expectancies for the respective countries?

[ExpatGator]

Who ya callin' neurotic? Huh? Who? Huh? Neurotic? Huh???? Ya talkin' to me?

[prion]

There is another theory that MADD and the other guardians of the nanny state don't want you to know -- alcohol consumption. The Brits as a whole drink more, and alcohol in moderate amounts is good for the heart and probably helps to reduce stress.

I like your theory even better than mine!

Seriously, the current trend for sifting through a mixed bag of studies and statististics and calling the result "meta-research" is of very dubious value.

[FostersExport]

If we are what we eat, then I contend that your former boss had been eating some of the aforementioned hamburgers full of a*sehole.

[Unmarked Package]

"With four weeks you can have a real break."

I'm chuckling here thinking of me in earlier times and my former business associates (petrochemical engineering). We would have experienced a real psychotic break if forced on a four week vacation without our wireless laptop computer, email, and PDA. :-)

However, the long days of hard work have their reward; a very early retirement with many long years of happy and healthy leisure time with family and friends.

[FostersExport]

78.38 years for the UK versus 77.71 for the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

[River_Wrangler]

Yes.

[A. Pole]

What are the life expectancies for the respective countries?

From http://www.aihw.gov.au/mortality/data/faqs.cfm:

Life expectancy at birth, selected countries, 2003

	Males		Females
Rank	Country	Life expectancy	Country	Life expectancy
1	Japan	78	Japan	85
2	Iceland	78	France	84
3	Sweden	78	Switzerland	83
4	Australia	78	Spain	83
5	Switzerland	78	Australia	83
6	Israel	78	Sweden	83
7	Singapore	78	Italy	82
8	Canada	78	Canada	82
9	Italy	78	Austria	82
10	New Zealand	77	Iceland	82
11	Norway	77	Norway	82
12	Austria	76	Singapore	82
13	Spain	76	Germany	82
14	Netherlands	76	Finland	82
15	Malta	76	Belgium	82
16	France	76	Israel	82
17	Greece	76	New Zealand	82
18	United Kingdom	76	Netherlands	81
19	Germany	76	Greece	81
20	Ireland	76	United Kingdom	81
21	Denmark	75	Portugal	81
22	Finland	75	Malta	81
23	USA	75	Denmark	81
24	Belgium	75	Ireland	81
25	Portugal	74	USA	80
26	Poland	71	Poland	79
27	China	70	China	73
28	Indonesia	65	Indonesia	68
29	South Africa	48	South Africa	50

[Alberta's Child]

This shouldn't come as a surprise.

I did a similar case study (admittedly using a very limited sample size) and came to the exact same conclusion. Just look at the basic differences between these two:

The British guy has the characteristics of a fairly normal, healthy middle-aged man. The American one looks terrible, has had to deal with a number of ailments over the years, and is such a certifiable loony-tune that if he were in any field other than politics he would have been consigned to a psychiatric ward years ago.

[Cincinatus]

It's gotta be the beer -- English beer is much better than the American variety.

[Fairview]

I have a number of British friends who fly to the US, to get treatment as Johns Hopkins or Sloan Kettering, when they have a truly serious health problem. And yes, that's even with private health care in the UK. Something about those facilities being on the cutting edge of research and being able to offer the very latest drugs and treatment modalities. Sometimes it works.

[ExpatGator]

Thanks for the comparison.

[katana]

Would you rather live to be 80 in a climate where it doesn't rain 9 out of 10 days, with decent teeth, a 4 bedroom house on a half acre, 200 channels on your satellite or cable TV, a car that is too big to fit in a broom closet, a society where you can still defend yourself against intruders without ending up in prison, and a medical system where you don't have to queue up to receive life saving care.

Or, live to 85 with an umbrella permanently attached to your wrist, teeth that could frighten a wolverine, 6 TV channels (two of which are left wing propaganda mills for which you're obligated to pay a steep user fee), a car that might well fit in your average size pantry, in a culture of "don't do anything to hurt the nice young thug", and a medical rationing system right out of George Orwell.

I always enjoy visiting Britain and consider myself an anglophile, but there's more to life than longevity.

[A. Pole]

Which one, may I ask?

[ExpatGator]

I figured it would be close, and that the U.K. would have the edge if there was any. Our fatties, who are mostly poor and living off the state, have flattened our increase in life expectancy.

[A. Pole]

a society where you can still defend yourself against intruders without ending up in prison

Hmm, maybe you are on to something. If the intruders get shot it will shorten the average life expectancy!

[ExpatGator]

Aussie beer is better.

[River_Wrangler]

Which one, may I ask?

"Ones" England and Canada.