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Your Good Health
Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000 Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000. Recently, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention released a list of the leading causes of death in the United States. The findings and analysis were published last week (week of March 7, 2004) in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The results are very interesting. The two leading causes of death in 2000 were tobacco (435,000 deaths; 18.1% of total US deaths) and poor diet and physical inactivity (400,000 deaths; 16.6%). While neither of these causes appear on a death certificate (it would listed as heart disease, cancer, lung disease, etc.), it is interesting to note that the two leading causes of death in the US are preventable. It is also alarming to see that poor diet and physical inactivity, or in other words obesity, is recognized as the second leading cause of death. Moreover as the authors conclude "poor diet and physical inactivity may soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of death. These findings, along with escalating health care costs and an aging population, argue persuasively that the need to establish a more preventive orientation in the US health care and public health systems has become more urgent. "The message is simple. Don't smoke, start eating right and get physically active. Helpful Reference: Article Source:
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