News Japan second on the world's average life expectancy

[thomas]

It seems that a (healthier) diet still pays off:

Japan ranks second in world life expectancy, with progress from medical and health advances

Japanese men and women placed second on the world’s average life expectancy list in 2016, both after Hong Kong and marking records for the fifth year straight, according to the welfare ministry’s data released Thursday. The average life expectancy of men in Japan climbed to second from fourth in 2015 at 80.98 years, up 0.23 year, while that for women retained the spot at 87.14 years, up 0.15 year from the previous year. Hong Kong was at 87.34 years for women and 81.32 years for men.

The extended life expectancy for both men and women can be attributed to progress in medical treatment and drugs, the rise of a health-conscious lifestyle and fewer people committing suicide due to the implementation of countermeasures, a ministry official said. Japanese women enjoyed the world’s longest average life expectancy — which denotes the expectancy at birth — from 1985 through 2010. They trailed behind women in Hong Kong in 2011 in the wake of Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami in March that year. [...]

In terms of consolidated numbers (not gender-specific) Japan ranks second too with 85 years, after Monaco (89.47 years):

Geoba.se: Gazetteer - The World - Life Expectancy - Top 100+ By Country (2016)

 

[OoTmaster]

I had to look up Monaco because I wasn't familiar with the name. I didn't know they counted city states as countries for things like life expectancy.

 

[thomas]

I had to look up Monaco because I wasn't familiar with the name. I didn't know they counted city states as countries for things like life expectancy.

I believe they count in all sovereign nations; that includes city states such as Monaco (Monte Carlo), San Marino, the Vatican, Hongkong (though not sovereign, only autonomous), and smaller European nations such as Liechtenstein and Andorra.

 

[musicisgood]

One thing I've noticed at the clinic that I go to. (Diabetic clinic) is that the number of patients has grown a lot over the last 20 years. And most of the patients I've seen are quite slim, few are actually really overweight . Here's an article on eating rice. I need to cut down on rice. I eat fried rice way too much and eat bread also.
Background: Refined carbohydrates have been suggested to deteriorate glucose metabolism; however, whether persons with elevated intakes of white rice, which is a major staple food for the Japanese, experience increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes remains unclear.

Objective: We prospectively investigated the association between white rice intake and risk of type 2 diabetes.

Design: Participants were 25,666 men and 33,622 women aged 45–75 y who participated in the second survey of the Japan Public Health Center–based Prospective Study and who had no prior history of diabetes. We ascertained food intake by using a validated 147-item food-frequency questionnaire. Odds ratios of self-reported, physician-diagnosed type 2 diabetes over 5 y were estimated by using logistic regressions.

Results: A total of 1103 new cases of type 2 diabetes were self-reported. There was a significant association between rice intake and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in women; the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio for the highest compared with lowest quartiles of rice intake was 1.65 (95% CI: 1.06, 2.57; P for trend = 0.005). In men, the association was unclear, although there was a suggestion of a positive association in persons who were not engaged in strenuous physical activity (P for trend = 0.08).

Conclusions: Elevated intake of white rice is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in Japanese women. The finding that is suggestive of a positive association of rice intake in physically inactive men deserves further investigation.

I got to start hitting the pavement and getting back into light jogging. I ride a bicycle daily but for some reason I can't lose some weight. Maybe too much rice and liquor?

 

[mdchachi]

My wife has high triglycerides and her mother had a stroke in her 60s and didn't make it to 70 so it's a worry. But there's no way in hell she'll give up white rice.