Americans VS Brits:
Its been, 230 years to be exact since we declared our independence from Britain, and subsequently won that war.
But in the long run, we may not be better off than the British, at least, when it comes to our health.
Talk about the good stuff: Fish and chips and Shepard’s pie--a delicious heart attack waiting to happen!!
But those are British food…not American! Not that we don’t like it…
Still, when comparing our health status to that of the Brits, new research in the Journal of the American Medical Association isn’t favorable for Americans.
It found we have higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, & lung disease and cancer than our friends across the pond.
But wait!
“As Sherlock Holmes said, my dear Watson, we’ve come to the wrong conclusions.”
A British medical expert, dr. Edward colt of the St. Luke’s Roosevelt obesity center, says all those conditions--or what’s called co morbidities--.the blood pressure, the diabetes--are more common here as a result of American obesity alone.
“Everything they have found is based on the fatness of Americans. To then conclude independent of fatness that American people are less healthy than British people is an incorrect conclusion,” says Dr. Colt.
And while we’ve been more obese for a longer time, the fat gap is now narrowing--and with it, the health gap will narrow as well.
Registered Dietician Keri Glassman says, “The obesity rate in our country is 31 percent and in the United Kingdom it’s 23, but they’ve risen over the past 20 years from 7 to 23 percent. So I feel if we redid the study in ten to fifteen years, from now, we’d see the co-morbidities may be on par with ours.”
The question is if they actually do catch up to us in terms of fatness and overall unhealthiness, will they surpass us? Because the study also found that the English drink more than we do and alcohol is full of calories and sugar.
“Up until now their portions were more in control they were eating less refined food, so you combine that with the higher alcohol intake they could be in a worse position later on,” says Ms. Glassman.
The real place the study found we Americans do lose: we spend a lot more money on healthcare and aren’t healthier.
“Americans spend twice as much on health care as the English and they don’t get their money’s worth,” states Dr. Colt.
Dr. Colt says the reason we’re spending twice as much is we are using expensive medications when cheaper medications would suffice, and, procedures are performed which may not be bottom line necessary procedures.
The researchers say health insurance cannot be the central reason for the better health outcomes in England because the top socioeconomic status (ses) tier of the u.s. population have close to universal access but their health outcomes are often worse than those of their English counterparts.
The smoking rate also isn’t a factor; it’s the same in both countries at around 20 percent.