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Poor
Lifestyle Habits May Soon Contribute to Life-Span Decline
 Auburn,
March 24,
2003 ---
American life expectancy has recently reached an all-time high, but
this upward trend may not last.
Several factors,
most notably the appallingly bad eating and exercise habits of
millions of Americans, are likely to contribute to a reversal of
this trend within the next few decades.
The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that life
expectancy increased by two-tenths of a year. The average life-span
is now 77.2 years overall – 74.4 years for men, 79.8 years for
women.
Much of this
increase in life expectancy can be attributed to dramatic advances
in medicine during the last 20 to 35 years. Use of antibiotics that
began several years ago led to dramatic reductions in infectious
diseases, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis. Also contributing
have been the drops in infant mortality occurring within the last
decades. More recently, medical advances in the treatment of
chronic diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease and
cancer also have played their part.
Even so, a
series of disturbing lifestyle trends that have intensified within
the past 20 years ultimately may contribute to a decline in
life-spans in the future, says Dr. Robert Keith, an Alabama
Cooperative Extension System nutritionist and Auburn University
professor of nutrition and foods.
“Some bad things
are taking place on several fronts now, and that’s why I think we
may not be able to sustain this increase in life-span without some
real breakthroughs in medicine,” Keith says.
“On one front,
you’ve got life-span increasing, but on another, you have this
situation where people are becoming more obese and sedentary.”
Keith and other
experts characterize the increases in obesity and sedentary
lifestyles as an epidemic, the consequences of which appear to be
especially severe among young people.
“We know that
obesity is related to a variety of serious health conditions,
including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, strokes, kidney
failures, cancers – all kinds of diseases that will kill these young
people much earlier in life, unless science uncovers some medical
solution to fix it or lifestyles change dramatically.”
“Recent studies
already have documented that obesity reduces life-spans between
seven and 14 years.”
One other factor
that also may contribute to this trend, Keith says, is the
increasing ineffectiveness of some antibiotics stemming from the
growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains.
“We have these new strains of viruses
and antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are cropping up – a problem
that is made worse by international air travel.”
“These two
factors operating in tandem – obesity/sedentary lifestyles and
associated problems coupled with such problems as
antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- may end up reversing the strides
we’ve made in life expectancy within the last two decades,”
“Barring some
major advance in medicine, I believe you’re going to see life
expectancy go down, unless we can convince people to reduce their
weight and become more physically active.”
As things stand,
Keith says, younger people who don’t come to grips with their
obesity, will begin dying at younger ages – as early as their 50s
and 60s in some cases. It is a problem that already is reflected in
the alarming rates of adult-onset diabetes among young adults and
even teenagers – something that was virtually unheard of only a few
decades ago.
“If they have
diabetes in their 20s and fail to lose weight, they’re not going to
live to their 80s as many of their thinner, more physically active
parents and grandparents,” Keith says.
(Source:
Dr. Robert Keith, Extension
Nutritionist and Auburn
University
Professor of Nutrition, 334-844-3273.)
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