Vindication
The Washington Post called attention to a report by WHO showing life expectancy (and other things) for member nations. And guess what? The US doesn’t look so bad, and more importantly, there is no correlation between ranking by the CMWF and money spent on healthcare or life expectancy--as was predicted here recently. In general, for first world countries, the life expectancy is in a band from 77.6 to 80.3, and individual differences are probably not significant. Beyond that, long life depends on good genes, good personal habits, and a clean environment.
I went to a meeting many years ago where researchers talked about elderly populations--who lived the longest and why. One basic conclusion was that those who lived longest were those who consumed the most calories per kg of body weight. Think carefully about that.
Champions of long life are Japanese women at 86 years--unless they come to live in the US. For both sexes, the Japanese still lead with 82.3 years, followed by San Marino and Monaco (81.6). Anyone think there is some common thread in the healthcare systems in these countries that puts them ahead?
At the other end of the scale sits Sierra Leone with a life expectancy of 38.6 years. Do you think improving their healthcare system would fix that? How about taking away all the guns.
African countries generally do poorly, but the big medical problems there (malaria and dysentery) are public health problems, not healthcare problems. You don’t combat malaria by treating a case of malaria. You fix that problem with mosquito nets. The most potent weapon against dysentery is a supply of clean water.
So we are left with the conclusion that life expectancy has almost nothing to do with healthcare. Some, but not much. In this country, we do such a good job of taking care of cardiac patients, that this is beginning to affect longevity. It’s also hard to die in the US of renal failure--there’s a dialysis center on every street corner. But in general, the quality of our healthcare cannot be linked to our longevity.
I went to a meeting many years ago where researchers talked about elderly populations--who lived the longest and why. One basic conclusion was that those who lived longest were those who consumed the most calories per kg of body weight. Think carefully about that.
Champions of long life are Japanese women at 86 years--unless they come to live in the US. For both sexes, the Japanese still lead with 82.3 years, followed by San Marino and Monaco (81.6). Anyone think there is some common thread in the healthcare systems in these countries that puts them ahead?
At the other end of the scale sits Sierra Leone with a life expectancy of 38.6 years. Do you think improving their healthcare system would fix that? How about taking away all the guns.
African countries generally do poorly, but the big medical problems there (malaria and dysentery) are public health problems, not healthcare problems. You don’t combat malaria by treating a case of malaria. You fix that problem with mosquito nets. The most potent weapon against dysentery is a supply of clean water.
So we are left with the conclusion that life expectancy has almost nothing to do with healthcare. Some, but not much. In this country, we do such a good job of taking care of cardiac patients, that this is beginning to affect longevity. It’s also hard to die in the US of renal failure--there’s a dialysis center on every street corner. But in general, the quality of our healthcare cannot be linked to our longevity.
