Right Chemistry: America's healthier past is no more than a myth |
“Make America healthy again” sounds like a great slogan. It is loaded with nostalgia and … haziness. What is that “again” all about? When were those halcyon days when Americans were healthier than now?
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There with you then. Here with you now. As a critical part of the community for over 245 years,The Gazette continues to deliver trusted English-language news and coverage on issues that matter. Subscribe now to receive:
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Was it in 1900, when life expectancy was around 47 and one in five children did not reach adulthood, dying regularly from tuberculosis, diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough and diarrheal diseases from contaminated water, milk and food? Those who survived to adulthood then died from tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid fever and various other infectious diseases. Polio crippled many and childbirth was often deadly. Yeah … those healthy days.
By 1950, life expectancy had climbed to 68 years thanks to water chlorination, milk pasteurization, better hygiene, antibiotic treatment of infections, vaccinations and a safer food supply thanks to preservatives and refrigeration. People were living long enough to develop heart disease due to smoking, less physical activity, unhealthy diets and undiagnosed hypertension. Today, U.S. life expectancy is around 78-79, thanks mostly to the reduction of infectious diseases that killed people early. Infections from a wound are no longer a death sentence, there is no worry about cholera being transmitted in drinking........