Why Is the USA Only the 35th Healthiest Country in the World?
By ETIENNE DEFFARGES
According the 2019 Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index, the U.S. ranks 35th out of 169 countries. Even though we are the 11th wealthiest country in the world, we are behind pretty much all developed economies in terms of health. In the Americas, not just Canada (16th) but also Cuba (30th), Chile and Costa Rica (tied for 33rd) rank ahead of us in this Bloomberg study.
To answer this layered question, we need to look at the top ranked countries in the Bloomberg Index: From first to 12th, they are Spain; Italy; Iceland; Japan; Switzerland; Sweden; Australia; Singapore; Norway; Israel; Luxe...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 15, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Economics Health disparities Health Policy American healthcare Etienne Deffarges Mediterranean Diet Opioids world health Source Type: blogs
Threefold Increases in Border Arrests for Nicaraguans and Indians in 2018
Since 2012, Border Patrol has apprehended a growing number of nationals from countries other than Mexico —almost all of them from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Last year, however, the agency saw threefold increases in apprehensions of Nicaraguans and Indians. These spikes may represent a widening awareness that America will accept people from around the world who come to the border to request asylum.Figure 1 shows that from fiscal year 2017 to 2018, the number of Nicaraguans arrested by Border Patrol increased from 1,098 to 3,337 —a 204 percent increase—and the number of Indians grew from 3,135 to 9,234—a 1...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 9, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: David Bier Source Type: blogs
Stalking the wild garganey in West Sacramento #birding #eBird #iNaturalist #birdphotography #nikonD500
So - I did a thing today. A new thing for me. I officially became a bird nut. For the first time in my life, I went on an outing to see a rare bird that I read about online.I went to West Sacramento, to a pond there, to see, and hopefully take pictures of, a garganey. What, you ask, is a garganey? It is a kind of duck. According to Wikipedia:The garganey (Spatula querquedula) is a small dabbling duck. It breeds in much of Europe and western Asia, but is strictly migratory, with the entire population moving to southern Africa, India (in particular Santragachi), Banglade...
Source: The Tree of Life - March 9, 2019 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Five Misconceptions about the Crisis in Venezuela
Some media reports and analyses on the latest developments in Venezuela are repeating the following five misconceptions: 1. “Juan Guaidó proclaimed himself president of Venezuela” Juan Guaid ó is the president of the National Assembly, a body that is controlled by the opposition. On January 10 a new presidential term started and, as required by the Constitution, the president-elect had to be sworn-in in front of the National Assembly. However, Nicolás Maduro was “reelected” last M ay in a sham election that the leading opposition parties were prevented from contesting it. Thus, on January 10 most Wes...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 28, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Juan Carlos Hidalgo Source Type: blogs
Center for Immigration Studies Shows a Very Small Threat from Terrorists Crossing the Mexican Border
Todd Bensman, the Senior National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), wrote a recent report entitled “Have Terrorists Crossed Our Border?” in which he presents a list of “15 suspected terrorists have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, or en route, since 2001.” Bensman lists these 15 individuals, some of which don’t have names, and describes their actions. He writes that his research is based on publicly availab le information, so it is likely a “significant under-count” of the actual terrorists who entered. Bensman also writes that “several reports that strongly ind...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 28, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
The Migrant Caravan, Central America, and Vaccination Rates
Many commentators have recentlywritten andsaid that members of the migrant caravan and Central American immigrants in general are diseased. Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Ward claimed that the migrants are “coming in with diseases such as smallpox,” a disease that the World Health Organization (WHO) certified as beingeradicated in 1980. One hopes Mr. Ward was more careful in enforcing American immigration law than in spreading rumors that migrants are carrying one of the deadliest diseases in human history nearly 40 years after it was eradicated from the human population. But even on oth...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 1, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
Rabies in Costa Rica
Recently, a biologist in Costa Rica acquired rabies while working in a cave. For over five decades, Costa Rica has reported the lowest rates of rabies in Central America (El Salvador reports the highest rates), both in terms of cases and cases per 100,000 population. [1,2] Costa Rica also reports the lowest incidence of animal rabies for the region.
In the above graph, data for Costa Rica appear as a row of red dots at the lower margin (arrow).
References:
Berger S. Rabies: Global Status, 2018. 475 pages , 557 graphs , 2,570 references https://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/disease/rabies-global-status/
Berger S. I...
Source: GIDEON blog - October 29, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs Source Type: blogs
Socialist Experiments
In the summer of 1982, after the Cato Institute ’s week-long seminar at Dartmouth, I drove to Boston with one of the other attendees. Touring the city, we encountered a protest rally on Boston Common. I don’t remember just what the rally was about – probably the “nuclear freeze” or a general protest against nuclear weapons, which was a strong movement then. As we watched, a young woman approached and handed us flyers calling for socialism. “Like in Russia and China?” I asked her. Unwilling to defend those disastrous results, she responded “We’re more interested in the experiments currently going on in Zim...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 3, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
The World ’s First Wireless, App-Based Ultrasound: Interview with Dr. Ryu, CEO of Healcerion
Healcerion, based in South Korea, was the first company to receive FDA clearance for a wireless, app-based ultrasound system back in 2015. The groundbreaking work done by South Korean engineers and scientists laid the foundation for the development of an ultrasound transducer that works with most smartphones or tablets. Since introducing the SONON 300C convex transducer, the company has been making progress to further advance this branch of ultrasound devices. Their latest, the SONON 300L linear transducer, weighs only 13 ounces (370 grams) including the battery, and features color Doppler mode for easier musculoskeletal ...
Source: Medgadget - June 29, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Yuriy Sarkisov Tags: Anesthesiology Cardiology Critical Care Emergency Medicine Exclusive Ob/Gyn Surgery Source Type: blogs
Fixing our health care system won ’t make us healthy
Like all doctors, I am frustrated when I see my patients missing out on what could be years of good health. And our medical system is so dysfunctional that it’s tempting for doctors and patients to blame poor health outcomes on how we pay for medical care. But, our ridiculous payment system is a symptom, not the cause of our problems, and fixing our medical system is not going to vault us to the top of the healthiest countries list.
The quality of a nation’s health care system reflects its values, and as Americans, we value self-reliance, competition, and capitalism. Although often productive, these values have blocked...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 31, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/christopher-j-frank" rel="tag" > Christopher J. Frank, MD, PhD < /a > Tags: Policy Public Health & Washington Watch Source Type: blogs
Malaria Rates in Central America
Although CDC declared that there is no risk for malaria to American travelers in Costa Rica as of 2014, six of eleven cases reported by the latter in 2017 were classified as “autochthonous”. [1] For much of the past fifty years, Costa Rica has reported the lowest rates of malaria in Central America; and rates for the entire region have decreased dramatically since 2000 [2,3]
References:
https://www.ministeriodesalud.go.cr/index.php/vigilancia-de-la-salud/boletines/enfermedades-de-transmision-vectorial-2017/3443-boletin-epidemiologico-no-31-2017-zika-chikungunya-y-dengue/file
Berger SA. Malaria: Global Statu...
Source: GIDEON blog - May 14, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs ProMED Source Type: blogs
World Top 5 Wellness Retreat destinations for Body and Mind
You're reading World Top 5 Wellness Retreat destinations for Body and Mind, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Wake up and enjoy a rich and healthy breakfast in bed. Open the window and the view is amazing. You aware with aesthetic treatments and several hours of massage to free yourself from the stress and tension. In addition, spend time meditating in a splendid Buddhist temple. Get a result to clear mind to continue with your daily life full of positive energy.
No, it is not just a dream, to find moments ...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - April 12, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: sophiapeterson Tags: health and fitness meditation destinations Wellness Retreat Source Type: blogs
Costa Rica ’s Election: It Wasn’t the Economy, Stupid!
Is it the economy, stupid? A preliminary analysis would have concluded that such a maxim would prevail in Costa Rica ’s presidential race: unemployment is high (especially among the youth), the cost of living is one of the highest in Latin America, and public finances are at a breaking point. However, culture wars, in particular same-sex marriage, dominated the debate leading up to the first round of elections h eld on Sunday. How can this be explained?From the beginning this was an atypical presidential race for Costa Rica, due to the rise of a right-wing populist candidate who led the polls for many months. With a mess...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 8, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Juan Carlos Hidalgo Source Type: blogs
Precision Medicine and Public Health (from Precision Medicine and the Reinvention of Human Disease)
Excerpted fromPrecision Medicine and the Reinvention of Human DiseaseDespite having the most advanced healthcare technology on the planet, life expectancy in the United States is not particularly high. Citizens from most of the European countries and the highly industrialized Asian countries enjoy longer life expectancies than the United States. According to the World Health Organization, the United States ranks 31st among nations, trailing behind Greece, Chile, and Costa Rica, and barely edging out Cuba [42]. Similar rankings are reported by the US Central Intelligence Agency [43]. These findings lead us to infer that acc...
Source: Specified Life - February 6, 2018 Category: Information Technology Tags: cancer cancer vaccines precision medicine prevention public health Source Type: blogs
How to Deal with Honduras ’ Quagmire
There are good reasons to believe that fraud took place in Honduras ’ presidential election.The Economistdid astatistical analysis of the election results and found “reasons to worry” about the integrity of the vote—although they were not conclusive. Areport from the Organization of American States Observation Mission points out “irregularities, mistakes, and systemic problems plaguing this election [that] make it difficult… to be certain about the outcome.”At the heart of the controversy is how the results of the presidential election shifted dramatically after a blackout in the release of information that l...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 6, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Juan Carlos Hidalgo Source Type: blogs
