Life expectancy now shorter than it was.

[OperationMalena]

From The Guardian, "Life expectancy at retirement now is two years shorter than it was when they did the last review".

So, they aren't increasing the state pension age to 68 YET because our average national life expectancy has decreased. This, plus apparently middle-aged people are fed up and it is a vote loser.

But hey, life expectancy in this country has declined. Our government(s) must be so proud. I mean WTF? How difficult can it be to find decent people in this country to run the place?

If this carries on, maybe they need to bring in retirement earlier.

@TheLastofmySanity We have large areas where are are absolutely no footpaths or street lights. It’s four miles from my house to the next small town, there’s about 30 meters of pavement and that’s it for over two miles.

@soffa

How much of those long hours are to pay for two cars?

what 2 cars?

Lots really? I'd be wondering what's happening in your area if you know lots.

You have a really narrow view of most people's reality!

Most people don't drive cars because they are lazy.
Most people don't work full time so they can spend all their money on a car.
Most people can't just reduce their hours or change their jobs.

Are you older? Lots of parents have to work f/t now to afford mortgages/rent/dc not because of new expensive cars & avocados 🙄

Nothing weird about that.

I know people in their 50s who have kept healthy and fit who have died or have long term conditions.

Choose your parents and grandparents carefully......

How does your partner get to work?

1. Lifestyle illnesses.
2. Later retirement.
3. A recent (last 3 years) surge in deaths due to infectious disease in the most elderly.

All have contributed to skewing the overall figures. In another 5 years it will be a clearer picture.

Nature always - always - rebalances.

The only newsworthy thing about this news is that it somehow "news" and not a simple expression common sense that if you shit into your own environment, you will come to harm. And that writ large is what we humans are doing.

I think you'll find most HCP feel this way. The aging population and literally flogging dead horses all day keeping people alive because people think 85year old nana who is immobile and had multiple strokes should have a chance to live another 10 years. I do not want to live to be elderly.

how do you think?

I've many talents but mind reading isn't one of them

And yet you assumed

my dc were old enough to walk to school but didn't,
that I lived far away from their school,
that we had 2 cars,
those 2 cars were putting pressure on our finances

🤔

So why do you drive again?

read upthread, all the info is there...

I'm not sure why you took umbrage with my posts about why some people need cars? Or why you have created a narrative around why you think people need them.

It's quite strange & if your life is so unfulfilling that you have spent the day picking holes in my posts rather than engaging in healthy debate then I would argue that's not conducive to an healthy life expectancy. Hopefully you find some happiness going forward...

@soffa

You're just playing games.

If you had a serious point to make, you would.

Cars are killing us. That's a serious point.

Do you have a source for this please?

Apologies, it's actually only 5% according to Cancer Research UK. Tried to like it but it won't let me.

I actually agree with this, but part of the reason is the cheap crap sold by the big supermarkets, i.e. meats pumped up with water, tasteless fruit & veg, etc.

Whenever I'm abroad, typically in the Med, I love eating salads, etc which actually have a taste. Back in the UK, I just can't stomach the bland tasteless stuff. Same with roast dinners, used to love meat & two veg, but now it's just a chore to chew through it.

I was convinced it was the "feelgood factor" of being on holiday, but I've renewed my love of fresh food by using local farmers markets.

In places like the Med, people are more likely to shop locally and retail isn't dominated by the big supermarkets like it's become in the UK.

This is not quite the full picture and some of what you've written here is slightly selective, if not misleading. The causes of cancer is a very complex topic.

Here is the link to Cancer Research's page on causes. It says that around 5% of cancers are caused by inherited faulty genes. But 'inherited faulty genes' is a very specific classification of genetic material. There are other ways to acquire cancer besides an inherited faulty gene that are not primarily environmental. Age is a major one; half of all cancers are in people over 70. (CR's figure.)

It does not mean that 95% are caused by eating meat and dairy as you seem to be suggesting.

CRUK also says that 40% of cancers are preventable. These are mostly the ones contributed to by lifestyle choices; smoking, drinking alcohol, sun/sunbed exposure or eating too much (red) meat and overly processed food.

But if 5% of cancers are linked to inherited faulty genes (and presumably not preventable), and 40% are preventable, that still leaves a big chunk of causes that are neither genetic nor preventable. Dietary choices, such as eating meat, dairy, or processed foods, would clearly be a preventable risk factor because you can choose not to eat it. So there are other factors at play here, to the tune of 55% of cases.

So it's a more complex picture.

Expect it to be painful at first. Throw the money that you save on car running costs and insurance at taxi's when your logistics feel really broken. Join a car share scheme (We are in co-wheels, but enterprise run one) Get your heavy /bulky groceries delivered at least once a month and buy expensive panniers once instead of cheap and then expensive.

Sorry I dashed out of the door to work earlier and have just sat down @Letsrunabath

Just putting this out there but I think beige food has a lot to answer for.
This was introduced in the late 60s/70s along with freezers to keep your beige food in.
Post war people had the longest life span. It's now shortened .

There are huge numbers of children who don't eat fruit/vegetables/salads. So many seem to be fussy eaters or have AFRID, yet seem able to eat chicken nuggets or chips or pizza.
Children aren't born needing these foods. Children are born to eat what gives them the most calorific gratification, ie high fat foods. They express their pleasure then display their reluctance on real food , so parents cave.

Factor in increased numbers of burning fossil fuels with car use.

It is food that is causing this. No two ways about it. The industrialisation of food and farming is basically killing us.

Ultra processed foods for a start where foods are full of ingredients that you can only create in a lab.

The food fads that contribute to this ie low fat, low sugar, gluten free, vegan etc etc it’s just more tampering with whole foods and turning them into ultra processed foods.

Industrialised farming with it reliance on pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. Farmers for instance will spray wheat crops with glyphosate prior to harvest because it speeds up the drying of the grain. This started in the 70s, glysophate is found everywhere now, in water, in urine and even breast milk because wheat is in everything we eat particularly UPFs like bread, cakes, biscuits, pasta etc

Animals are fed glysophate sprayed feeds, it goes into their system then into ours.

we are literally killing ourselves with the foods we eat irrespective of whether we eat meat, are vegetarian or vegan. Unless you have 100% traceability of your food or are 100% organic we are screwed and our life expectancy will continue to shrink as chronic illnesses rapidly increase.