Somewhat paradoxically, we start to look at the state of our state by looking at the causes of our ultimate demise. The paradox is built into our health statistics. Our best indicators of health are records of mortality. They fix the age at which we die, record that which we die from. Even our life expectancy tables, as we explain in this chapter, are but "insideout" mortality tables. The chapter …
This chapter attempts to discover trends in the diseases that afflict us — and what they may signify — not by following some kind of classification of diseases but by looking at diseases — or groupings of diseases — that have caused concern in recent years. We begin with a look at sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). These affect by far the largest numbers of people and ha…
In 1900, at the dawn of the era of scientific medicine, our life expectancy at birth was just a shade over 47 years. We turned away from folkways and came to rely on science and reason in the treatment of disease and illness. The discoveries that allowed medical science to extend our lives occurred at a dizzying pace. By 1998, our life expectancy at birth had risen to nearly 77 years. Medical trea…
In the following pages, we look at risky behaviors that can carry us to early graves. We know these behaviors are risky because the public health establishment tells us so — and often. Public health efforts shifted in the 20th century from sanitation and preventing communicable diseases to advising us how to extend our lives by correcting our behavior. The government's redefined role crystal…
One can say — guardedly — that the health status of Americans is generally very good indeed. The caution comes because it is never safe to crow when it comes to matters of health. But a look at our methods of treating diseases certainly bears out the general judgement. We begin this chapter by looking at operations and medical procedures in hospitals — and looking at data a dista…
"Pill-Popping Nation." This was the title of an October 2000 article in the magazine Forecast.1 Is it a true description of the United States? In 2001, 3.1 billion prescriptions were dispensed in the United States, a 1.2 billion increase since 1991. By 2004, the number of prescriptions dispensed is expected to reach 4 billion. In the first panel we look at the most dispensed prescriptions in 1995 …
Until the middle of the 20th century, men worked until they died or fell terminally ill (after which they soon died). The women left behind managed as best they could with the help of family. Life expectancy crept up. In 1960, America counted its first 1 million citizens over the age of 85. In 2050, there will be 1 million Americans over the age of 100. As the huge Baby Boom generation struggles t…
The history of how human societies have treated their handicapped and disabled members is not a pretty tale. The disabled have often been misunderstood, shunned, locked away, feared, and kept on the margins of society. With medical advances made during the 20th century, many more people with severe disabilities were saved from an early death, particularly those disabled through injury. For example…
Four of the top ten disabilities in the United States are mental health issues: major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder a time — depression, for example, tends to accompany any illness that diminishes one's quality of life. More than 44 million men and women (1 in 5 adults) are thought to have…
The subject of sexuality would probably merit a book on its own, but in the panels that follow, we shall only be able to peek at a few issues — our attitudes and some of behavior. Are our views changing? For all the talk of sex in the media, how sexually active are we? The first panel will explore our attitudes to premarital sex, and how they have changed over recent years. The next panel lo…
Many factors influence the decision to have children. The very fact that we now decide whether or not to have a child is, in itself, a sign of the change in attitude about reproduction that has taken place over the 20th century. The century saw two Baby Booms, one after each World War, the second being of epic proportions. The first two panels provide an overview of these two patterns. In the 1960…
Air, earth, fire, and water. The four elements of the universe according to Empedocles, a philosopher who lived in the 400s B.C.1 Science has proven, contrary to Empedocles' theories, that matter is not made up of varying ratios of these elements. However, all living matter needs all or most of these elements to survive. In this chapter we will discuss the quality of our air and water and how it r…
This chapter looks at trends in the medical professions, from physicians to physician assistants, then on to nurses and technicians, ending with virtual doctors practicing tele- medicine. We look at numbers of medical professionals, trends in specialization, and the phenomenon of geographic maldistribution. Medical professionals are overwhelmingly concentrated in metropolitan areas. What are the i…
The population of the United States is increasing. At the same time, the number of hospitals is decreasing. Hospital closures and mergers are creating potentially dangerous situations across the country. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): the merger of religiously controlled (specifically Catholic) hospitals and secular hospitals present a particular threat to women's health c…
This chapter begins by looking at some of the issues dealing with federal funding of health research and development (R&D). Growth in funding for health R&D from 1953 to the present has exceeded the growth rate of defense R&D. Does the government spend the most money researching the biggest killers of our day? Or do "special interest groups" have some influence? Next we take a look at …
