Live Long & Prosper

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) normally the bearer of the big bad scrary news reported that we're living longer and healthier lives. Though women are still living longer than men (80.4 as compared to 75.3 years) its a narrowing gap. "For the first time, life expectancy for black males reached 70 years..."

"...There were an estimated 11,061 deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2007, and mortality rates from the disease declined 10 percent from 2006, the biggest one-year decline since 1998. HIV remains the sixth leading cause of death among 25-44 year-olds"

Even with a pandemic coming heart disease and cancer are still the two leading causes of death in 2007 while flu and pneumonia was down. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's increased but not significantly. The full report can be found as a PDF at the CDC website. Good news about death and dying - who knew such a thing was even possible?

We did! It's more information not less that can lead us to do things such as change our diets and maybe exercise more. We need to be prepared with more information to make us less afraid in the future and of the future.