Mid Rivers Newsmagazine 6-21-17

20 I HEALTH I
June 21, 2017
MID RIVERS NEWSMAGAZINE
@MIDRIVERSNEWS
MIDRIVERSNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
Men of all ages are encouraged to live healthier during National Men’s Health Month.
health
capsules
For men only
Past research has shown that men are
25 percent less likely than women to have
visited a doctor over the past year, and
almost 40 percent more likely to skip recommended
age-appropriate health screenings.
During National Men’s Health Month
in June, men of all ages are encouraged to
make their health a priority. The U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
has offered the following simple steps men
can take to improve their overall health and
solve small problems before they become
big ones.
• Get enough sleep. Most adults need
between seven and nine hours of sleep a
night. Not getting enough has been linked
with conditions such as diabetes, heart disease,
depression and obesity.
• Eliminate tobacco. Even for longtime
smokers, quitting has many benefits including
a reduced risk of cancer, heart disease
and other life-threatening illnesses. Avoiding
secondhand smoke is also a must, because it
causes serious health problems as well – especially
for babies and children, who should be
kept away from smokers at all times.
• Make time for exercise. All adults
should get at least 2 ½ hours of moderate
aerobic activity a week, and should
do some type of strengthening activity on
two or more days a week to exercise major
muscle groups. Dividing exercise into
smaller amounts of time during the day
doesn’t diminish its benefits.
• Eat a variety of healthy foods. Eating
a variety of fruits and vegetables daily is
important for their nutritional and diseasefighting
benefits, along with lean protein
and whole grains. Limit intake of foods
and beverages that are high in calories,
sugar, salt and fat. As far as alcohol is concerned,
limit intake to no more than two
drinks per day.
• Keep stress in check. Everyday stress
is unavoidable; however, excessive stress
has been linked in studies to a higher risk
of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes,
high blood pressure, depression and other
serious problems.
• Get regular checkups. Certain diseases
and health conditions have no symptoms
until they are serious, so visiting a
doctor every year helps identify those
issues before it’s too late. Know your
important health numbers, including blood
pressure, cholesterol level and body mass
index. Between checkups, symptoms such
as chest pain or shortness of breath should
prompt an immediate medical visit.
U.S. life expectancy statistics
vary widely by area
Babies born today in the U.S. may have
shorter expected lifespans than their parents
did decades ago, depending on where
they live. A new study comparing mortality
data by county from 1980 and 2014 found
that the gap between counties with the
highest and lowest life expectancies has
widened significantly over that period, by
more than 20 years in some areas.
Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota,
had the lowest life expectancy in America
in 2014 at 66.8 years, while Summit
County, Colorado, had the highest at 86.8
years. For the U.S. as a whole, life expectancy
has increased by about five years
since 1980, from 74.07 to 79.08 years.
Missourians’ life expectancy increased
by exactly four years over the 35-year
period, from 73.73 to 77.73, while St.
Louis County residents in 2014 had a
higher-than-average 79.49-year expected
lifespan, compared to 75 years in 1981.
Although much of the U.S. saw increases
in life expectancy since 1980, areas of
Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama and
several states located along the Mississippi
River had a lower life expectancy in 2014
than 30 years earlier.
Researchers at the Institute for Health
Metrics and Evaluation [IHME], located
at the University of Washington in Seattle,
conducted the comparison study. They
also examined the risk of dying among five
age groups, as well as the extent to which
health risk factors, socioeconomics and
race, and healthcare access contributed to
the growing inequality in expected lifespan
by area.
“Looking at life expectancy on a national
level masks the massive differences that
exist at the local level, especially in a
country as diverse as the United States,”
said lead author Laura Dwyer-Lindgren,
a researcher at IHME. “Risk factors like
obesity, lack of exercise, high blood pressure
and smoking explain a large portion of
the variation in lifespans, but so do socioeconomic
factors like race, education, and
income.”
The authors claimed that those health
risks, and resulting illnesses like diabetes
and heart disease, explained 74 percent of
the variation in lifespans by county. They
proposed that a combination of socioeconomic
factors – poverty, income, education,
unemployment and race – were
independently related to 60 percent of the
inequality, and access to quality healthcare
contributed to 27 percent.
The study was published in JAMA Internal
Medicine. Life expectancy data for
every U.S. county can be viewed online,
using IHME’s Health Map interactive tool,
by visiting https://vizhub.healthdata.org/
subnational/usa.
“Extreme” binge drinking becoming
common among adults
Almost 32 million American adults,
or 13 percent of the population over age
18, have consumed more than double the
number of drinks considered binge-level
drinking at least once over a one-year
period, according to a recent survey analysis.
This “extreme” level of drinking is
associated with increased health and safety
risks, and is especially significant considering
that more than 50,000 Americans
die every year from injuries and overdoses
associated with high blood alcohol levels.
Compared to past surveys, the number of
adults who binge drink at an extreme level
also appears to be rising. The study was
conducted by researchers at the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
[NIAAA], part of the National Institutes of
Health.
Binge drinking, defined as having four
or more drinks on one occasion for women
and five or more drinks on one occasion for
men, often produces blood alcohol levels
above 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving
in the U.S. However, the survey found
that many adults drink far beyond that
level, defined as extreme binge drinking.
The NIAAA study analyzed three levels
of past-year binge drinking by sex. These
levels were defined as four to seven drinks,
eight to 11 drinks, and 12 or more drinks
on a single occasion for women; and five
to nine drinks, 10 to 14 drinks, and 15 or
more drinks on one occasion for men.
After controlling for factors including
age, race, sex, marital status, education,
drug use and smoking, people who drank