The Current Health of Americans

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The following report is a compilation of three recently released studies on the health of Americans.
In a study comparing the health of Americans with our European counterparts we were compared to Austria, Denmark, France, Germany Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. We have higher rates of cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart disease. So much so that it adds an additional 100-150 Billion dollars more than our European counterparts. The obesity rates for us are 33.1% vs. 17.1%, and for smokers 53%vs. 43%. We spend about $6,102 dollars per person in the U.S. which is nearly twice that of Netherlands, Germany or France. The study pointed out that the single thing Americans could do to reduce our spending costs is for the country to go on a diet. This would have a positive impact on diabetes, hypertension and health disease.
The study points out the fact that the American medical system is an intervention at point of disease contact and there is virtually no disease prevention as there is in Europe. The authors point out that the average American takes between one and two weeks vacation per year whereas our European counterparts believe it is a God given right for them to take 6 weeks per year, which they all do.

Authors Note: Having spent a large amount of time on both continents I have noted the following. Americans live to work Europeans work to live. They do take 6 weeks per year and I believe because of that they maintain a better balance in their lives. They take longer to eat and it takes them longer to prepare the food that they are going to eat. They spend more time socializing and less time in church, more time talking to each other and less time in front of the T.V., they walk more and drive less, and find more satisfaction in their lives with less accumulation of “stuff”.

The current status of our health. More than 109 million Americans report that they have one or more of the following:

Cancer 10,555,000 (3.7%)
Diabetes 13,729,000 (4.9%)
Heart Disease 19,145,000 (6.8%)
Hypertension 36,761,000 (13%)
Stroke 2,245,000 (.9%)
Mental Disorder 30,338,000 (10.7%)
Pulmonary Conditions 49,206,000 (17.4%)

The impact of these diseases on our economy is 1.3 trillion dollars per year. 277 billion is in the cost of treatment or 21% and 1.047 trillion dollars in lost productivity. It is estimated that by implementing preventive measures we could reduce the impact of all of these diseases on our economy by 18%.
If you could see a map of the highest prevalence of disease it would show that the entire Southeast has the highest incidence of disease, the mid west less and the entire western states are the healthiest.

Authors Note: If you add the above numbers up you find that there are 161,979,000 million Americans that are sick with some sort of on going disease. Since there are about 40 million children that are not in the above statistics and about 300,000,000 million Americans in general that means that 53% of adult Americans are SICK. One out of two Americans have a chronic illness!!! It’s no wonder we rank number 14 in the world for longevity. As shocking as these statistics are the real question is what can we do about it. I think the answer lies in my 13 Tip of a Healthier and Happier Life that you can get from the front web page. These by the way are just the out line of the book by the same title that will be out next year.