You want a piece of me? Punk!
Study finds middle-aged Americans not as healthy as English counterparts — This is a pathetic indictment of our health care system, food supply and societal infrastructure. I thought we were supposed to be “Number One!”
White middle-aged Americans are not as healthy as their English counterparts, and in both countries lower income and education levels are associated with poorer health, according to a new comparison of key American and English health surveys. The healthiest Americans in the study–those in the highest income and education levels–had rates of diabetes and heart disease similar to the least healthy in England–those in the lowest income and education levels there. The research was supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and British government agencies.
James Smith, Ph.D., of the RAND Corporation, Zoe Oldfield, M.Sc., of the University of London, and Sir Michael Marmot, M.D., and James Banks, Ph.D., both of University College, London, reported the comparison in the May 3, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
I lived in the ‘States for 5 years, returning home this past January. While over there, I was training as an EMT (I was also a qualified volunteer firefighter) in my rural village in PA. I was amazed at the number of people suffing from major problems such as heart disease and diabetes.
I have to say though, that on the whole, the American public are FAR more stressed than their counterparts in the UK. You guys are worried about a whole plethora of things in daily life that we just couldn’t give a s**t about.
For example, religion, which language the National Anthem is sung in, who’s on this weeks rich list, etc.
I’m also concerned that your health system is money motivated and will naturally diagnose a patient as a “case” even if that patient shows the merest sign of the symptoms. Our Health System has many, many faults, but the general principal is to spend LESS money. This means that we generally don’t become slaves to the drug industry and we generally don’t have procedures unless we SERIOUSLY need them (and even then, the waiting lists are so long that most things sort themselves out naturally before the procedure). I think that make us less reliant on healthcare and therefore “stronger” in a natural/self help sense.
BOCTAOE.
I think it has something to do with English men wearing better quality shoes than Americans. Wear a pair of Church’s $550 wing tip oxfords and you’ll know what I mean. There is no American shoe (at whatever price) that comes close.
Stress probably, Americans stay wired up too much. In both countries people eat crappy. This could also reflect dietary patterns in the study participants youth. There was strict rationing during WWII, and several years following in the UK. All previous studies indicates that periodic famine makes people healthier. We could also be going to doctors too much and taking too many damn meds. Whatever the reason I’m calling a realtor in Manchester. I have a cousin there.
I won’t even go into what is properly termed alienation; but, the stress abounds in area after area. Just reacting to the question, consider:
The number of hours worked and the number of family members working to sustain the family. The rest of the world has striven to reduce those numbers. We work extra hours to be “better” consumers.
As a political entity we “inherited” the mantle of imperial boss from the Brits after WW2. We’ve proven to be terrific cannon fodder.
Our interstate highway system — built to support the Cold War in case you don’t remember — allowed escape to the suburbs. Whoopee. That means how much time spent commuting every day? A process designed to give the average office worker and professional as many nervous twitches as an over-the-road truck driver.
Fast food. Think about that one for a bit.
What do our leading intellectual workers do on a daily and weekly basis? Consider the hours put in by folks in Silicon Valley? It should be called Ulcer Gulch.
As a Church’s shoe wearer for 30 years I know what you mean. And they are not even the high-end shows from Britain.
American conceit about being number one is a bad joke in other counties.
I’m inclined to agree with poster #1. Heck, in Britain, they’d probably tell you they have better dental health too but have you seen people’s teeth there?
They simply don’t bother to see their doctors as often. Plus, every time we Americans see a doctor, they have to check off the “Diagnosis” box on the chart, even if they have no clue what the problem is. Many times the diagnosis is a Wild Ass Guess. I personally went through a month-long strep infection that was diagnosed by three different doctors as flu, food allergy, Fifth’s Disease, and an ordinary virus before the smartest of them finally decided to do a routine throat swab.
JoAnn
Shoes ? Who cares about shoes? Since when did this article talk about people’s shoes?
There are a couple of things this study did:
1. The study was done on white people.
2. The outcome was fairly obvious.
#7 said routine throat swab
In UK Doc. would book you an appointment at local hospital within the next month for such a swab, where you will queue for an hour
They will then lose the results and ask if you can re-attend
After the 3rd visit they will announce the swab shows nothing
most nations have a heathier diet, in the long term, If they are eating then the US.
the chemicals used, on plants, and animals in the US is astounding.
Plants are grouwn so fast, they cant gain any nutrianal values, THEn we strip it to the core, removing the bulk, then sell the BULK to you when you get constipated from eating the core/ without the bulk.
Meats are so POOR, they hardly ever see anything outside a pen. they dont get the sweet grasses and dandilions that can sweeten the meat.
And YES, we dont know any better.
I hope I ned not go into the idea that the GOV, only wishes you to be a dreamer, and tells only 1/2 truths and storeis on the TV. To the point, that you change the channel and become ILL- informed.. So we wonder this great country because we CANT find the truths and HOPE our GOV is there to protect us, and is doing a good job. BUT, the only persons they (the GOV) hear from is companies, NOT us..
off the top of my head, I would guess a lot of it is due to the fact that Americans tend to be overweight. I was in London last year and very surprised by how trim the British were. every time I saw a fat person, I also heard an American accent.
how did we Yanks get so fat? one thing for sure is hardly any of us walk very far on a day-to-day basis. that commute that makes you twitch with tension as you wolf down your Egg McMuffin or Dunkin Donut also takes you door-to-door so you dont have to stretch your legs at all.
I would like to see another study done in the US comparing cities with abundant mass transit to commuter cities and how their weight problems correlate, if at all.
I have spent the better part of the last 3 years in England. their diet is just as crap as ours now. The stress level is getting there as well. They do tend to eat less meat than we do and more veggies. To be honest it almost has to be the youth of the middle agers that makes the difference. It’s only been in the last 25 years that the U.K. has moved to fast food(not counting fish and chips and kabobs) like we have here and their financial markets have only become as rough as ours in the last 25 years as well, so the stress level and diet would make a big difference in the body building years.
You can’t get a dentist in England unless you have money for a private one. The NHS has declared them literally missing in action. The medical care is spotty at best and not very good. The best Nurses and Doctors have gone to the U.S. because of the lousy pay and working conditions. Even if your willing to pay for it yourself, it’s almost impossible to get a good Doctor. They just poured billions into the NHS to improve it over the last 6 years and it has failed, the queue for care of any kind is worse than it was before and hospitals are closing completely, or wings or not doing emergancy services anymore……so there won’t be any difference between Brits and Yanks in another 5 years……they will both be dead men walking.
Between the monster large portions, type A work week, couch potatos and fast foods – its no wonder