A recent report issued in the Canadian Medical Association Journal indicated that the Canadian life expectancy might drop as much as in the US and, even more, the same threatening factors could cause this fall.
“There are some signs which are pointing in the same direction. We find the same trends [as in the US], to a much lesser degree, in Canada,” explained Juergen Rehm of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
According to Rehm, the life expectancy drop in the US is quite surprising as it’s not typical to such a wealthy nation. The last time when such fall in the lifespan across the United States has been recorded during the Second World War, for obvious reasons. However, this time, higher suicide rates and drug overdoses, and alcohol abuse are among the main risk factors for the American life expectancy rates drop, primarily affecting poorer regions in the US.
Canadian Life Expectancy Might Drop As Much As In The US
“Ninety percent of what’s happening with deaths of despair in the United States is happening in rural America. You cannot let large parts of a country have a net loss in salary over 10 to 15 years and expect those people to be as happy and as clear as before,” Juergen Rehm said.
According to Rehm, the same trends are shaping up in Canada, as the drug overdose situations reached about 4,000 in 2017, while they were only around 2,000 not so long ago. In addition to that, Rehm said that Canadians’ income, cheap alcohol, and higher availability of booze might contribute to the Candian life expectancy drop.
“We have people speaking about one buck a beer, or nonsense like that. While Canada has seen half the prescription opioids in the US, we’re still the second-highest country in the world. We should allow those policies that are at least not worsening our gap between the rich and the poor,” Juergen Rehm concluded.