1.This reply post must be 100-150 words in length and show critical reflection about the other person’s post. Your reply post has to include information that either supports or refutes your classmate’s post and must include a reference  It is insufficient to say, “Great post.” or ” I agree/disagree.” You have to clearly indicate what you liked about the person’s post, what you agreed with, disagreed with, etc., and use course materials to demonstrate your point. 

a) Life expectancy has increased in the US because of industrialization. The basic reasons that allowed life expectancy to increase are medical innovations, such as vaccines and the eradication of many diseases, and hygiene (“eradication of many diseases” [Hooyman, et.al., 2016]), and cultural factors, such as the decrease in unhealthy practices (tobacco). There are also, however, systematic factors that cause life expectancy to increase, such as the case of a decline in birthrates, which allows the average age of the population to increase (Hooyman, et.al., 2016).

(b) That being said, all of these factors are also true for other developed countries, which brings us to why then, life expectancy in the US is lower compared to them. In terms of medical innovation, the US is a leading country for the use of technology in medicine, which has absolutely impacted the increase in life expectancy, as it was mentioned above. Still, there are factors that put the US behind. Some of these are in the way of living, and the TED talk by Dan Buettner reflects on it greatly. In the video, they mention they have studied and observed the blue zones around the world, and they have found 9 characteristics that we can all agree differ from typical life in the US. These 9 points are natural workouts, the right outlook, eating wisely, and connecting with others. Another factor we should have in mind as well are the chronic illnesses (leading cause of death in the US) that take lead compared to other nations (The Commonwealth Fund, 2023), once again because of [mostly] the *unhealthy* cultural aspects prevalent in the US (CDC, 2023).

(2023, January 31). U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2022: Accelerating Spending, Worsening Outcomes. The Commonwealth Fund. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2023/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2022#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20has%20the%20highest,hospital%20beds%20per%201%2C000%20population.

CDC (2023, January 18). Leading Causes of Death. Center for Control Disease and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm