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A comment on U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline. Parent comment

Re:U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutiv... by switchbak on Wednesday August 31, 2022 @10:49PM (#32671298)
Lifestyles haven't changed? Come now, in just my lifetime I've seen kids go from being outside everywhere playing until dark, to being mostly inside all day. And I live in a very active community!

With regards to changes in willpower, that seems like a strong assertion, got any sources on that?

100% agree that our diet (generally) has changed drastically.

But I don't get your jump of why medication has to be the solution? Maybe undoing some of the changes that got us here?

Sure, in many cases where they're already well down the road of obesity and experiencing its negative health consequences - yes medication can be useful. But that's far from the only option at hand here.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutiv... by pmarreck on Friday September 02, 2022 @12:41PM (#32692850)
> With regards to changes in willpower, that seems like a strong assertion, got any sources on that?

How is it a strong assertion that willpower HAS NOT changed? Isn’t that the null hypothesis? It seems to me that you’d need evidence that it HAS changed

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutiv... by switchbak on Sunday September 04, 2022 @12:25AM (#32709818)
Take a look at your average individual from 100 or so years ago: probably working a manual job, lived through a depression and world war. Life was certainly harder for most in many basic ways. Obviously not true for all, but generally speaking quality of life has improved a lot.

Our culture is light years away from that in terms of the resilience that's generally expected from people.

Yes, I think it's fair to question the assumption that willpower has not changed.

[ Parent | on HN ]