<p>US life expectancy fell for the second consecutive year in 2016, announced the CDC on Wednesday. This is the first time we&rsquo;ve seen a multiyear drop in life expectancy since 1962.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s certainly concerning to see this two years in a row,&rdquo; says Bob Anderson, who ;leads the CDC&#8217;s mortality statistics branch. ;</p>
<p>According to the report, the average life expectancy ;is 76.1 years for American men and 81.1 years for American women.</p>
<p>The leading causes of death remain unchanged; foremost among them are: heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer&rsquo;s, and diabetes. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of deaths from unintentional injuries, Alzheimer&rsquo;s, and suicide.</p>
<p>The category of &ldquo;unintentional injuries&rdquo; includes overdose deaths, a number that will likely play a role in statistics for 2017.</p>
<p>Deaths from drug overdoses increased by a whopping 21% in 2016. &ldquo;It just keeps going up and appears to be accelerating,&rdquo; says Anderson. There were an estimated 63,600 overdose deaths in 2016; at least 42,000 of those were caused by opioids. ;</p>
<p> ;&ldquo;We have data for almost half of 2017&hellip;it&rsquo;s still quite provisional, but it suggests that we&rsquo;re in for another increase [in drug-related deaths],&rdquo; says Anderson. &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re not careful, we could end up with declining life expectancy for three years in a row, which we haven&rsquo;t see since the Spanish flu, 100 years ago.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>The overdose death rate is the highest in the state of West Virginia, which has a rate of 52 deaths per 100,000 residents. Ohio and New Hampshire came in second and third. ;</p>
<p>The United States continues to lag behind dozens of other developed countries in life expectancy. Highest is Japan, with a life expectancy of nearly 84 years. ;</p>
<p><strong>Author&rsquo;s Note:</strong> Despite the Obamacare claim that more people have access to healthcare, we are not healthier. It&rsquo;s time to do something about it.</p>
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