To Live and Die in the U.S.

Not to be too much of a downer in this season (or anytime), but ... here's an interesting and little-known finding from a report by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine: “For many years, Americans have been dying at younger ages than people in almost all other high income countries.” And that's across the socioeconomic board. "Rich Americans die earlier than rich people in other countries. College-educated people die earlier than college-educated people in other countries,” says the director of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. What is perhaps more surprising is that we are also getting sicker and at a younger age. So what's to blame? As one would suspect, there are many theories: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/living-sick-and-dying-young-in-rich-america/282495/