MeisterEckhart wrote Yesterday at 2:03pm:



probably health care does have very little effect.
lifespan also needs to be considered alongside health span

i would imagine many if not most americans live their last 10 years with a major health issue and the hospital system is "prolonging the agony"

good nutrition, good exercise , good interpersonal relationships and good community are vital to good health and are not to be found in the western system.

the japanese eat a much better diet and are not fat .....


Several diets are conducive to the maintenance of good health and to the prevention of cardiovascular disease, for example, the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), the vegetarian diet, and the Japanese diet. We often refer to the Mediterranean Diet in these pages, because it is well established scientifically that this diet is particularly beneficial for cardiovascular health. Knowing that the Japanese have the highest life expectancy among the G7 countries, the special diet in Japan has also captured the attention of experts and an informed public in recent years.

Japanese life expectancy
Among the G7 countries, Japan has the highest life expectancy at birth according to 2016 OECD data, particularly for women. Japanese men have a slightly higher life expectancy (81.1 years) than that of Canadian men (80.9 years), while the life expectancy of Japanese women (87.1 years) is significantly higher (2.4 years) than that of Canadian women (84.7 years). The healthy life expectancy of the Japanese, 74.8 years, is also higher than in Canada (73.2 years).

The higher life expectancy of Japanese people is mainly due to fewer deaths from ischemic heart disease and cancers, particularly breast and prostate cancer. This low mortality is mainly attributable to a low rate of obesity, low consumption of red meat, and high consumption of fish and plant foods such as soybeans and tea. In Japan, the obesity rate is low (4.8% for men and 3.7% for women). By comparison, in Canada 24.6% of adult men and 26.2% of adult women were obese (BMI ≥ 30) in 2016. Obesity is an important risk factor for both ischemic heart disease and several types of cancers.

Leroy wrote Yesterday at 1:50pm:


Do you have a link to that, Leroy?

aquascoot wrote Yesterday at 2:27pm:


Yup, having just flew back from there 2 days ago, I was amazed at the low level of fatty boombahs. In all the tourist sites, the only fatties were either western, Indian (not many) or Malaysians (lots)

On my flight back, in the row behind and next to me was a group of 6 fat Aussie tattoos slags all in their mid 30s, and all milking the flight attendants for the max amount of alcohol they could get.

I saw them all outside when I left Sydney Int terminal, they were all either vaping or smoking.

Leroy wrote Yesterday at 1:50pm:

That’s right… if you’re rich and want, say, plastic surgery, a boob job, some other vanity surgery, or genital reassignment, wait times in the US are shorter…

MeisterEckhart wrote Yesterday at 2:53pm:


Suicide, drug ODs, road deaths all at x2 of Australia. All of that alone would skew the life expectancy.

FWIW, I'm not arguing in favour of the American health care system, but you're being very simplistic by not being willing to factor in this data which clearly effects the life expectancy number.

aquascoot wrote Yesterday at 4:12pm:


Why didn't the rapist do that during his first term - too busy putting up 3 miles of chicken wire on the southern border?

MeisterEckhart wrote Yesterday at 3:44pm:


Yes I noticed that,  early in this thread.

US health care and research capability is amomg the best in the world; the problem is people on the median wage living paycheck to paycheck can't afford it.

Meanwhile US capitalism encourages low-income people (who don't know better) to eat lots of highly processed junk food, while greedy private-health-insurance CEOs laugh all the way to the bank.