Life expectancy dropped in 2015 for the first time in over 20 years. The reasons for that drop are numerous and complex.
American life expectancy in 2015 dropped for the first time in over two decades, according to a December 2016 Washington Post article documenting the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) “Mortality in the United States, 2015” data brief.
“In all, death rates rose for eight of the top 10 leading causes of death,” the article stated, citing rising fatalities from heart disease and stroke, diabetes, drug overdoses, accidents, and other conditions.
Overall life expectancy fell from 78.9 years in 2014 to 78.8 years in 2015 – one-tenth of a year – the first time a decline has occurred since 1993. Additionally, the overall national death rate rose 1.2 percent in 2015, the first time since 1999.
“Experts cautioned against interpreting too much from a single year of data; the numbers could reverse themselves next year,” the article notes. It also notes that despite a rise in death rates for the above-mentioned conditions, the mortality rate for cancer dropped from 2014 to 2015 – most likely because fewer people are smoking, the disease is being detected earlier, and new treatments have been developed recently, experts said.
A problem with no easy solution
Among the findings in the NCHS mortality data brief was an increase in deaths from heart disease, which could be linked to American obesity rates.
On the subject of obesity, Frank Sacks, M.D., professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at Harvard School of Public Health, asks this question: Why do some people lose 50 pounds on a diet while others on the same diet gain a few pounds?
Sacks’s research was the subject of a New York Times article examining recent findings that compare obesity to cancer: not one disease, but many. “You can look at two people with the same amount of excess body weight and they put on the weight for very different reasons,” said Arya Sharma, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Alberta.
It makes as much sense to insist there is one way to prevent all types of obesity – get rid of sugary sodas, clear the stores of junk foods, shun carbohydrates, eat breakfast, get more sleep – as it does to say you can avoid lung cancer by staying out of the sun, according to Lee Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center. He has counted 59 types of obesity, with a range of causes.
Research indicates that these causes range from genetic factors, to medication, to diseases. To help patients find an effective way to lose weight, specialists begin by determining if there is an obvious cause for a person’s excess weight, such as a medication, that can be switched for something else.
“If not, they suggest patients try one thing after another starting with the least invasive options, and hope something works,” said the article.
Sacks, the Harvard professor, examined 811 overweight and obese adults, randomly assigning them to follow one of four diets and undergo behavioral counseling to help them stick to those diets. Based on current trends, the diets varied as follows: Two were low in fat, but one was high in protein and the other had average amounts of protein. The other two diets were high in fat; one of them had high amounts of protein and the other had average amounts.
“The research was designed to answer the question of whether one diet was any better than another and it provided an answer: None of the diets elicited much weight loss on average, and no diet stood out from the others.”
A less deadly peanut
Most people seem to have some experience with peanut allergies, whether having to stay alert for the sake of their own safety or that of their children, or simply experiencing daily life and the “peanut-free zones” it brings.
Allergic reactions to peanuts cause around 500 hospitalizations and even some deaths in the United States each year, according to a December 2016 article in the New York Times Magazine. “Food that contains trace amounts, because it was produced with factory equipment or kitchen tools that came into contact with peanuts, can prove fatal for allergic individuals who consume it unsuspectingly.”
Some scientists are trying to alter peanuts to make them less dangerous for people who are allergic. Among these researchers is Alrgn Bio, a Greensboro, N.C.-based food technology start-up. Alrgn Bio uses an enzyme called Alcalase, mixed with water, to soak peanuts and destroy biologically reactive parts of certain proteins in the legume that cause allergic reactions.
“The hope is that the proteins are so changed that they won’t be recognized by the immune system – and will be less likely to elicit an allergic reaction, or at least a deadly one – in someone with the allergy,” said the article.