几年前，《华盛顿邮报》曾刊发一篇报道，说根据政府统计数据进行研究，发现同文同种，生活习惯也基本一样的美国白人比英国白人健康状况差很多。尽管美国人在健康保健方面的花销比英国人高一倍，但美国人-不管是富人，中产和穷人，糖尿病，心脏病，脑中风，肺病和癌症发病率都比英国高。报告说，糖尿病发病率美国人是英国人的2倍；高血压症率是英国的1.24倍；癌症发病率是英国的1.73倍！
专家们从体育锻炼，工作压力，精神负担，吸烟喝酒不良嗜好等等诸多方面企图解释其原因，但都不能提供合理解释。这个问题成为一个难解之谜。
我想，是不是转基因食物这个幽灵做的怪呢？ 因为除了美国人吃转基因，英国人不吃或很少吃转基因这个差异之外，其它真没什么可以引起美国人健康比英国人差这么多的原因了。
Study Shows Americans Sicker Than English
By CARLA K. JOHNSON and MIKE STOBBE
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; 10:47 PM
CHICAGO -- White, middle-aged Americans _ even those who are rich _ are far less healthy than their peers in England, according to stunning new research that erases misconceptions and has experts scratching their heads.
Americans had higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, lung disease and cancer _ findings that held true no matter what income or education level.
Those dismal results are despite the fact that U.S. health care spending is double what England spends on each of its citizens.
"Everybody should be discussing it: Why isn't the richest country in the world the healthiest country in the world?" asks study co-author Dr. Michael Marmot, an epidemiologist at University College London in England.
The study, based on government statistics in both countries, adds context to the already-known fact that the United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation, yet trails in rankings of life expectancy.
The United States spends about $5,200 per person on health care while England spends about half that in adjusted dollars.
Even experts familiar with the weaknesses in the U.S. health system seemed stunned by the study's conclusions.
"I knew we were less healthy, but I didn't know the magnitude of the disparities," said Gerard Anderson, an expert in chronic disease and international health at Johns Hopkins University who had no role in the research.
Just why the United States fared so miserably wasn't clear. Answers ranging from too little exercise to too little money and too much stress were offered.
Even the U.S. obesity epidemic couldn't solve the mystery. The researchers crunched numbers to create a hypothetical statistical world in which the English had American lifestyle risk factors, including being as fat as Americans. In that model, Americans were still sicker.
Smoking rates are about the same on both sides of the pond. The English have a higher rate of heavy drinking.
Only non-Hispanic whites were included in the study to eliminate the influence of racial disparities. The researchers looked only at people ages 55 through 64, and the average age of the samples was the same.
Americans reported twice the rate of diabetes compared to the English, 12.5 percent versus 6 percent. For high blood pressure, it was 42 percent for Americans versus 34 percent for the English; cancer showed up in 9.5 percent of Americans compared to 5.5 percent of the English.
The upper crust in both countries was healthier than middle-class and low-income people in the same country. But richer Americans' health status resembled the health of the low-income English.
"It's something of a mystery," said Richard Suzman of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which helped fund the study.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...02/AR2006050200631.html?referrer=emailarticle
