In 2011, thanks to the triumph of public health and medical interventions, Americans will live 30 years longer, on average, than they did a century ago. In fact, there are more than 100,000 people in the United States who have lived to be more than 100. These dramatic advances have resulted in a shift in the threats to American's health. In the early 1900s, when average life expectancy was 48, the leading killers were infectious diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis and diphtheria, but today the major causes of death are chronic illnesses including heart and lung disease, cancer and stroke.
Many of these illnesses are preventable. Smoking, a health damaging behavior in which about 20 percent of the U.S. population engages, is the largest preventable cause of death in the U.S. [1] Furthermore, for every person who dies from a smoking-related illness, 20 more live with at least one smoking-related chronic disease such as lung disease, heart disease and cancer. [2] The two-thirds of Americans who are overweight or obese are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke. If this trajectory is not changed, one in three children born today will develop type 2 diabetes as well as other obesity related illnesses, and as a result, this generation of children may become the first that does not live as long and is less healthy than their parents. [3] Alcohol abuse accounts for 79,000 premature and preventable deaths every year, and is linked to liver disease, cancer, cardiovascular illness, stroke and dementia. [4] Furthermore, 75 percent of the $2.6 trillion health care budget in America is associated with these preventable lifestyle factors.
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