There was a man with tongue of wood

As Americans we believe in progress, in a better tomorrow, sometimes with a bump in the road or a hiccough, but always a better tomorrow.

The data are in (March 4,2013 edition of JAMA Internal Medicine), and it ain’t happening for boomers. Blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity–all greater than the previous generation.

Source: The Status of Baby Boomers’ Health in the United States The Healthiest Generation?
Dana E. King, MD, MS; Eric Matheson, MD, MS; Svetlana Chirina, MPH; Anoop Shankar, MD, PhD, MPH; Jordan Broman-Fulks
JAMA Intern Med. 2013;173(5):385-386

Although longevity has risen during the twenty-year gap between the two groups, every other indicator of health, except smoking, has become less favorable. And the pattern is clear.

At the top of the following chart are general measures of health. Then, we can see that lifestyle factors have declined leading to the trends in the last section: declining indicators of cardiovascular health.

We can’t choose to be healthy or not: what we can do is make healthy choices by changing the lifestyle factors.

We are choosing illness at great expense to ourselves, both financially and in quality of life, while continuing to endure longer and sicker lives instead of enjoying healthier lives.