U.S. Life Expectancy Is on Its Way Down. Why?

Changes in the U.S. every year aren’t uncommon, that’s just a natural part of the constantly changing aspect of life. Unfortunately, not all changes are good ones. One change the U.S. has experienced recently has been that of a significant, ongoing dip in overall, American life expectancy. While the health and general well-being of the American people continues to improve, the average American life expectancy continues to drop. Why? As our nation continues to improve medicine and improve its ability to address major health problems, Americans are living shorter lives than they were at the turn of the century.

Drug Overdose Rates Skyrocket, Lowering Average Life Expectancy

The answer lies in a constant and seemingly endless increase in overdose deaths from drug and alcohol abuse each and every year. The grim truth is that overdose deaths get worse and worse each year, a non-stop, seemingly endless crisis that refuses to be stopped in spite of our massive efforts to do something about it.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Americans can be expected to live about 78.7 years, according to 2015 figures. That number is down one-tenth of a year form the 2014 recording of 78.9 years. Then, in 2016, the average life expectancy fell again, this time to 78.6 years. This might not seem like a lot, but extrapolated over hundreds of millions of people, that is actually millions of years of potential life that is no longer being lived. Unfortunately, it all comes down to drug and alcohol addiction as being the most prevalent cause of so many potential years lost.

Another factor that makes the dip in life expectancy concerning is that this has not occurred since 1993. That was the last time the average American was expected to live a shorter life than he or she was in the prior year. By and large, American life expectancy increases every year, but not anymore. In 1993, the U.S. was suffering from an HIV epidemic that was causing rampant death. Now it’s a drug addiction epidemic.

Yet another factor of prevalent concern is the fact that the average American life expectancy has not dropped two years in a row (like it did in 2015 and 2016) since 1965 and 1966. When the life expectancy drops two years in a row for the first time in half a century, that is something to be concerned about.

Where the U.S. Ranks in Life Expectancy

In spite of all the achievements the United States has been able to create, our nation has not done the best in life expectancy. Now, our rankings in the global life expectancy sphere are even lower considering the recent drug overdose epidemic. At the time of this writing, the United States ranks in at number forty-three globally for life expectancy, according to the CIA Fact Book. In 2014, more than thirty thousand Americans died from drug overdoses. In 2015, more than forty-thousand lost their lives. In 2016, sixty-four thousand Americans died from drug use. This was unprecedented. Numbers for 2017 have not yet been published, but as the opiate epidemic has continued to surge forward, it is feared that overdose deaths for 2017 will be even higher than 2016’s.

The Only Way Out of the Problem is Through Rehabilitation and Prevention

Over the last twenty years that the opiate epidemic has all but crippled entire demographics and geographies, we have come up with some pretty bizarre solutions. From “abuse-deterrent” drugs to nationwide legalization, to mass incarceration and nationwide prescribing of naloxone, most “solutions” are pretty left field. Moving forward, we need to focus on rehabilitating those who are currently addicted and preventing others from becoming addicted. That’s how we’ll resolve the drug problem.

Sources:

• https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2016-12-08/us-life-expectancy-declines-for-the-first-time-in-more-than-20-years
• https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/12/21/572080314/life-expectancy-drops-again-as-opioid-deaths-surge-in-u-s
• https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy