U.S Life Expectancy Drops

   Research shows that the U.S. life expectancy has dropped in 2017 once again. According to CDC’s (Centers for Disease Control) National Center for Health Statistics, during 2017, people could be expected to live up to 78.6 years overall which is a tenth of a year less than the previous year. When observed separately, women had a life expectancy of 81.1 years, a number that remained unchanged from 2016, but men’s life expectancy dropped a tenth of a year, making it 76.1 years.

   The ordeal seems to alarm experts because other developed nations have a growing life expectancy and the U.S has a declining life expectancy that has now sustained a long decline that hasn’t been seen in the country since 1915 through 1918. The decline during that time was due to World War I and a flu epidemic that killed well over half a million people in the United States. The drop now seems to be partially caused by the increase in suicides and drug problems.

   For instance, drug overdoses escalated to an astounding 70,237 from 63,632 the previous year, according to The Washington Post. These overdoses include many drugs but the ones which contribute most to the overdoses would be opioids from heroin, fentanyl, and prescription narcotics which took the lives of 47,600 people in 2017. However, deaths from heroin and overdoses from prescription narcotics like oxycodone and hydrocodone did not increase from the year before. Therefore, that leaves the increase at the fault of fentanyl-related deaths which surged up from 19,413 in 2016 to 28,466 in 2017, a 47  percent increase.

   In hopes of decreasing the number of drug overdoses, many states have made an effort to educate drug abusers or offer treatment programs. An overdose antidote called naloxone has also been made more available to people in many places. Furthermore, there are prescription drug monitoring programs to prevent people with drug abusing problems from gaining access to multiple prescriptions.

   Other factors that have contributed to the decline in the life expectancy would be last year’s flu season that increased the number of deaths, as well as deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alz­heimer’s disease, and strokes. Death from heart disease, the number one killer of Americans, continued to level off, and deaths from cancer continued their steady decline.

   Ultimately, there are many things that can save the lives that were lost, which is why many are so frustrated that they weren’t made available and that the life expectancy has dropped.