I’m adding this post so I can come back to this article in the future.  New York Times just published the article  For Americans Under 50, Stark Findings on Health.  This article shares findings from a 378 page report that compares health in 17 developed countries for people across all age groups.

“Something fundamental is going wrong,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, who led the panel. “This is not the product of a particular administration or political party. Something at the core is causing the U.S. to slip behind these other high-income countries. And it’s getting worse.”

The news is pretty stunning.

Panelists were surprised at just how consistently Americans ended up at the bottom of the rankings. The United States had the second-highest death rate from the most common form of heart disease, the kind that causes heart attacks, and the second-highest death rate from lung disease, a legacy of high smoking rates in past decades. American adults also have the highest diabetes rates.

Youths fared no better. The United States has the highest infant mortality rate among these countries, and its young people have the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and deaths from car crashes. Americans lose more years of life before age 50 to alcohol and drug abuse than people in any of the other countries.

Americans also had the lowest probability over all of surviving to the age of 50. The report’s second chapter details health indicators for youths where the United States ranks near or at the bottom. There are so many that the list takes up four pages. Chronic diseases, including heart disease, also played a role for people under 50.

“We expected to see some bad news and some good news,” Dr. Woolf said. “But the U.S. ranked near and at the bottom in almost every heath indicator. That stunned us.”

In a study like this you can look at causes ranging from food to politics, and from medical care to spiritual practice.  Being so deeply involved with ICE and seeing people recover from longstanding issues after using an ICE Method process for some sessions – I wonder about causes and solutions as well. Thought I’d share this article.  Anything we can offer to the game of better health – looks like we need it!