The first thing that came to my mind.. the dramatic decline in smoking..

Taking baby aspirin? Fish oil? Vitamin D? Some of the prescription drugs many folks take for hypertension are antiinflammatory. It's probably a combination of a bunch of things.

And although on an individual basis, there was little we could do about air pollution and leaded gas, finally fewer and fewer people are choosing to smoke. That's a big one right there.

People tend to forget that till you enter your 60s the leading cause of death is accidents, and in the past many people died from the long term affects of accidents. For example, actor Christopher George died in 1983 from a Heart Attack brought on by a heart contusion that was from an accident he incurred in 1967, Improve safety features in cars have reduced such accidents immensely since the 1960s when such auto safety rules started to be forced down the auto industry's throat. Similar safety improvements occurred in the work place starting with the introduction of OSHA in 1970 (Over Nixon's veto).

Now, health codes have also added to the life span of people, through most of that improvement was pre WWII (The community drinking cup, that everyone use being replaced by paper cups that were used once and discarded prevented the spread of a lot of diseases). Health regulations did most of its improvements pre WWII (at late as the 1920s the City of Pittsburgh water was a leading killer of people in the City of Pittsburgh, it was that bad, but starting in the 1920s, as Democrats took over the City of Pittsburgh, water quality improved so by 1930s the water was no longer a major killer).

Since the 1960s you have seen indoor plumbing even in Rural areas, most parks still had pit toilets in the 1960s but had switched over to plumbing by the 1970s. Many of the older homes without indoor plumbing, even in urban areas, have been torn down since the 1960s (I lived next to a set of public pits toilets in an urban county that survived and still usable in the early 1970s, I do not remember anyone using them but it was still standing till 1973). This has all lead to improved hearth conditions since the 1970s, not a big a jump as from the late 1800s till WWII, but significant.

Today, even in rural areas, portable toilets are in use, something you did NOT see in construction areas or farm lands as late as the 1980s. Another health improvement over the last 40 years that no one thinks about.

Europe was behind the US in the above safety and health changes right after WWII (WWII cause a lot of health problems) but as things improved in Europe starting in the late 1940s, Europe took the lead in improving safety with the US following. Japan had always been a "Cleaner" nation when it came to personal hygiene then the US, but Japan improved of their safety and health regulations starting in the 1950s (Through Europe, lead banned in 2000 were years behind the US, in 1995, and Japan, in 1986, in getting rid of Lead out of Gasoline).

Time line on removing lead from Gasoline:

http://www.lead.org.au/Chronology-Making_Leaded_Petrol_History.pdf

Please Note Japan in 1971, and the US, in 1973, started to ban leaded gasoline do to the adoption of the Catalytic converter to reduce pollution. Europe did NOT adopt the Catalytic converter, thus used leaded gasoline long after most Americans, in 1973, and Japanese, in 1971,had STOPPED using leaded gasoline. Thus, while Europe was only five years behind the US in abolishing Leaded Gasoline, Europe was 28 years behind in phasing Leaded gasoline out.

Please Note Russia only banned leaded gasoline in 2003, but had banned it in most Cities and tourist areas in the mid 1980s.

http://transportpolicy.net/index.php?title=Russia:_Fuels:_Diesel_and_Gasoline

Increase vaccination rates have also been a factor, one long term affect of German Measles (Rubella) can be a weaker heart:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubella


Other vaccines have also reduced the long term problems of diseases. The problem is in much of the third world the vaccines are NOT given out or mandated by their government to be given to children, thus the disease survive in the third world and increase the number of people killed by such diseases in the third world.

Just a comment it may be more then pollution and smoking.

More than a few people have speculated that the Roman Empire fell because of lead.

Rome used mostly Hard Water, which is water with a high calcium content.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water

Hard water leaves a Calcium coating on any pipe it flows through, thus the lead pipes used by the Roman ended up with a Calcium coating that prevented any of the lead from entering the water the Romans Drank. Thus Rome did not fall do to Lead Pipe, it fell do the the fact its peasants did not see any difference between being ruled by the Roman Elites OR invading barbarians (and in many cases SUPPORTED the barbarians against their own 1%). The Christianization of the Roman Empire was an attempt to keep the people united, but failed to address the issue of the huge concentration of wealth Rome had by 400 AD (Thus when the Barbarians adopted Christianity, the Roman peasants supported the Barbarians against their own 1% for everyone was Christian then).

Please note, the one area of the Roman Empire that survived into the Dark Ages, what is called the Byzantine Empire, had the lowest level of concentration of wealth within the Empire. Those areas with the highest concentration of Wealth, Western Europe and Egypt, fell to invaders who gave land to the peasants in those area. That grant of land, or the right to keep most of what was produced on that land, lead the peasants to support the barbarians against the Roman 1%, whenever Rome Tired to retake those areas (and when Rome did re-take those areas, just as under Justinian in the mid 500s, Rome gave the land back to its 1% and found that the Peasants preferred to be ruled by the barbarians for the barbarians demanded less from the peasants when it came to crops).

The 1% has NEVER liked the reports we do have as to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, for it is clearly a case where the peasants REFUSED to support the 1%, every other reason for the fall has been mentioned, but do not survive any rigid review of the facts. Rome fell for the 1% had to much control over the land and economy of the Roman Empire and you can only do that for a limited time before you either have an internal revolts (Which Rome did suffer from in the 400s, but those peasants revolts were mostly suppressed) OR you have a foreign invasion that the peasants SUPPORT (Most of the peasants revolts of the 400s were suppressed using the same barbarians that later took over the Western Empire, thus the two "events" are not separate but interrelated. The barbarians finally saying we can rule those Roman Peasants without having to give most of the money to the Roman 1% and both we, the Barbarians and the Roman Peasants will have more money and be happier without the Roman 1%.).

Of course, our 1% are too enlightened to allow anything like that to happen.

Ba dum pah.

Or are you saying that the removal of BPA products a few years ago has had these benefits?

The adults had a party right after Hoffman graduated from college, and one guy came up and said the 'one word plastics' thing to Hoffman, who then proceeded to have an existential crisis that ended in his affair with Mrs. Robinson...

. . . more exercise, yoga, etc.

Transfats are fucking POISON.

From polyunsaturated fats to more mono saturateds.

Arizona anti-vaxxers working for private prison company blamed for largest measles outbreak in the US

Arizona is in the midst of the largest current measles outbreak in the U.S. — and health officials are blaming unvaccinated workers at a federal immigration facility.

Officials have confirmed 22 cases of measles in the state since late May, and they all can be traced back to the Eloy detention center, a privately managed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, reported the Associated Press.

The Pinal County health director said the outbreak probably started with a migrant, but all the detainees have since been vaccinated.

However, the health director said, some employees of the facility managed by Corrections Corporation of America have refused to get vaccinated or show proof of immunity.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/arizona-anti-vaxxers-working-for-private-prison-company-blamed-for-largest-measles-outbreak-in-the-us/

Let's get rid of all the private prisons ASAP!

There is nothing good about them. They aren't moral. The agreements local areas have with them to keep 80% of their beds full are absolutely unconscionable.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! Please, prisons are something that should NEVER, EVER be privatized. Never.

And that goes for voting machines too

Not the pseudo science of the medical industry who only pay lip service to the notion of eliminating disease, but the science of technology, specifically the advancement of the internet.

As the much vaunted, crowning achievement of SCIENCE, the proof that all science is infallible, it is ironic that the internet(and not the R&D) is the major force in medical breakthroughs.

Through information, support groups and communication the people have begun to free themselves from the massive psychological conditioning of the free market medical system.


.

While being a way to disseminate info to the world, it has also created an army of willfully ignorant people who get their info from pseudo-scientific sources like Food Babe and anti-vaccine and anti-GMO groups.

Wouldn't you agree?

You do know what "the bad is", don't you?

I keep reading things about how we are more and more beset with chemicals - there are literally hundreds we are exposed to now that have only been developed in the last few years. The brutal capitalistic system that creates inequities, poverty, starvation and pain for so many - you'd think that would RAISE the incidence of disease.

But if you go on the internet there are a lot of things out there that really promote better health, or maybe wellness is a better word.

It really is a mystery, though - the seemingly spontaneous reduction of these diseases.

you forgot the sarcasm thingie. You are being sarcastic, right?

They will always generate a special level of disgust.

That combined with fewer smokers and less air pollution, makes a lot of sense.

Though...we do have bacon now and again. Bacon tastes good.

the possibility of it being partly because of less smokers and pollution. Though some diseases to be in decline, I wonder about the seeming increase in obesity, diabetes, asthma, and food allergies.

Interesting article.

Liver cancer is increasing in Minnesota (and nationwide)

Liver cancer is increasing in Minnesotans and nationwide. Rates have more than doubled in Minnesota and all racial and ethnic groups are experiencing a significant increase in the risk of developing this cancer.
https://apps.health.state.mn.us/mndata/cancer_liver

as far as kidney cancer goes, new cases are rising but deaths are not rising.

http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/kidrp.html

and the CDC has a different take than this reporter

CDC: US Death Rates Rise for Many Leading Diseases

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/859486

Since Hep C is now an entirely curable illness primary liver cancer cases and the need for liver transplants should fall off a cliff. How quickly will depend on how quickly Hep C patients can be given curative treatments while their livers are still in good working order.

PSA: Boomers need to have a Hep C screening if you haven't had one before, the rate is very high among that demo. It's entirely possible you've been asymptomatic for decades but your liver has been slowly declining since your misspent youth.

as more people turn to vitamin M supplements, disease conditions will decline - especially those related to stress disease. IMHO, vitamin M will be recognized, like aspirin, as one of nature's most significant contributions to human health.

It appears to be B vitamins.

nothing to do with the article. Just my observation and opinion.

nt

as seniors turn to pot over opioids - saved $165 million

except maybe those about shooting each other.




do I need this?

taxing tobacco heavily, and generally discouraging tobacco abuse. This has been working, with fewer teenagers spending the kind of money it takes to get addicted to it and more adults quitting or going to less toxic nicotine delivery like lozenges, gum and e cigs.

People will still continue to die from the big killers, but they'll be dying in their 70s instead of their 50s.

Works for the right wingers, why not us?

I think progress has been slow and mostly steady.

We have reduced some things in our intake, and I'm thinking of the
background things that don't point to a specific disease sometimes.

Things like metals. Aluminum cookware is just about gone. Food processes
that had mercury as a byproduct are definitely on the wane. Pesticides
are reduced. Spray those veggies with an acidic soap, and wash. Nitrite
intake is slowing. Dyes are being replaced with natural sources. Intake of
vegetables has increased. Maybe supplements give us more nutrients to
help the body maintain normal function.

The buildup of these things in our bodies tend to concentrate in areas that
don't circulate, or that clean the body of waste.

Less factories in America mean less toxins in our air and water.

It's likely to be a combination of many factors, each with a different level of influence. There may even be synergistic effects.

What would be wild is if there's just one factor responsible for the bulk of the decline.

It use to be that THE CAUSE of chronic illness was largely IGNORED. People didn't consciously take responsibility for their health, leading to chronic illness. Then health care picked up at the point where chronic illnesses had advanced in patients. Where it was the most difficult and EXPENSIVE to treat. Even insurance companies had little to worry about because they had tools to exclude customers who developed chronic illnesses. But NOW, everyone has skin in the game at reducing chronic illness, focusing on the underlying cause of chronic illness. Poor eating habits, lack of exercising, smoking and excess alcohol consumption. Now that insurance companies are forced to accept applicants with chronic illness or those that could fall in that direction, these companies for the first time, have self-interest to prop up their health policies with incentives to live a healthy life, prevent chronic illness and attack it in the earliest stages possible where it is cheapest to deal with. With the rise in health insurance premiums, even employers see the benefit in encouraging the employees to stay healthy. It isn't that we are stopping illness from occurring, we are now seeing a dramatic cut in full blown cases of these diseases. We have focused on reducing heart disease, cancer and diabetes and we are now seeing the direct benefits of that campaign. Prevention and early intervention.

Reduced smoking, improved vaccines & medicines, reduction of dangerous chemicals (no more asbestos in houses, no more lead paint), improved testing of our systems (despite all the bad cases we hear about, i.e. Michigan's water, the reality is that we simply wouldn't have adequately tested or known about this a half century ago), more nutritious diets being taught in schools and promoted on TV/online vs. the "Steak and potatoes" standard of a half-century ago, using sun-screen rather than sun-tan oil (and hell, the ozone layer is beginning to regenerate as well).

There are also countless ways that our lives are less stressful than those of past decades as well, despite what you might think about current times.


Most people come here to talk about political issues, and often to demonize other viewpoints and lament about awful things that happen in the world. But Don't kid yourself, the reality is that every day we are better off than the day before. Most things have gotten much better of the past years and decades and while it's not a straight line, and some things fall behind, other leap ahead. You can't stop the future and, as a species, we adapt and improve as we evolve.

really Big Picture. The decline in some diseases does not mean there isn't an increase in others. It seems that most of the people I know have some sort of chronic condition. I can't say that was true 20 or more years ago. I am referring to people of all ages, not just seniors like myself.

CDC: Heart-Failure–Related Mortality Rate Climbs After Decade-Long Decrease (Jan 2016)

ATLANTA, GA — Although heart-failure–related deaths in the US had a steady decline for more than 10 years, the rate is increasing again, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)[1]

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/859486

By the time we figure it out (if we do), it will probably have changed again.

There are parts of the US where that's not true, but that doesn't change the actual fact.

Map from CDC http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus15.pdf#015

Nobody ever denied that we have lower life expectancy than a lot of western countries. Our life-expectancy tracks with the other rich post-colonial countries, which shouldn't be particularly surprising.

Who is Gina Kolata and why does her information differ big time from the CDC.

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Gina-Kolata-Dowie6jul98.htm big

Though since the rate has been dropping, rather than holding steady, it's not clear why CDC assumes that.

People who died young of diseases nobody sees anymore didn't get cancer. It doesn't mean they were healthier, it meant that all the girls who died at age 8 of scarlet fever didn't live long enough to get breast cancer in their late fifties.

so far hasn't panned out.

Not sure why the CDC predicted this, but you are misrepresenting what's in your link in the title of your post.

Certainly better than when I was growing up.

Could be natural selection.