Study finds Americans are Healthier

What is the bigger picture when it comes to the state of health in America?  What are the chronic disabilities and risk factors that contribute to poor health and dying prematurely in this country? A new study examined America’s overall health picture. “It turns out we’re living longer but we will spend more years with chronic disabilities of that extra life span.” Dr. Christopher Murray and co-authors examined major diseases and injuries causing poor health and death in the United States over the last 20 years.  The biggest contributors of premature death include ischemic heart disease, cancers, stroke, road injury and suicide. Poor diet, researchers say, is the leading risk factor for disease. “680,000 deaths attributable to poor diet, followed by tobacco, obesity and then high blood pressure as the key contributors to ill health as risk factors.”  The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.