'Eat Right, Exercise And Don't Smoke' Should America Heed This Urgent Call To Live Longer?

The US National Center for Health Statistics has recently announced its data for 2015. Americans live on average up to the age of 78.8 years, 0.1 decrease compared to data in 2014, CNN reported. Women were expected to live longer than men until 81.2 years old. Men were foreseen to only live until 76.3 years. In other developed countries with the same economic status as the US, people live longer to about 84 years, like Japan.

In a 2015 data released by the NCHS, the number one leading cause of death of Americans is heart disease, next only to cancer, and respiratory diseases, among others. This report is important as it shows the trend and lifestyle of the average American. This also comes to mind the rate of the prevalence of obesity. So, if Americans have a better and healthy lifestyle, would they have a higher life expectancy rate?

Since 1993, when there was a more significant drop, Americans generally enjoyed an increasing rate until 2015. This could mean that there was a preference for a better way of living in the previous years after the outbreak of HIV, a very deadly disease at that time. Until today, with the sudden fall of numbers, with no epidemic of a new disease at hand, and with no mention of economics, there could be a better way to translate the new data which has a very important implication. 

A Call For A Lifestyle Change

The CDC's lead author of their report, Dr. Jiaquan Xu, does not agree that the available data is enough to come up with a conclusion. He refrained from recommending a specific course of action. But he did mention that Americans should "Eat right, exercise and don't smoke". Not an easy thought, much more, takes a much stronger resolve and commitment to do so. Nevertheless, who knows, this could give America a much longer lifetime span.