When I poke deeper into these type of life expectancy headline claims, I usually find life expectancy is continuing to improve for the typical North American adult who does not:

* Abuse drugs or alcohol.

* Become obese.

* Commit suicide.

While the overall statistical decline is unfortunate, the underlying causes result from things already known to shorten lifespan. If you add eating healthy, reasonable exercise and maintaining routine healthcare the numbers improve even more.