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A new podcast episode – What is and what is not important to living longer—with science!
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Links:
Shepard Smith on Ebola
The true story of Stronzo Bestiale
Annals of Internal Medicine statement about Vitamins
Annals of Internal Medicine review of 240 papers on organic food
Data on Loss of Life Expectancy:
Data from Bernard Cohen’s 1979 paper
Cohen’s 1991 paper (full text pdf, free). This paper explains the methodology in full of how the LLE was calculated.
Loss of Life Expectancy (LLE) due to various behaviors. All data taken from Cohen 1979[1] and 1991[2], except where indicated.
Activity or risk | LLE (days) |
---|---|
Smoking cigarettes (male) | 2300 |
30% overweight | 1300 |
Working as a coal miner | 1100 |
20% overweight | 900 |
Smoking cigarettes (female) | 800 |
Sub-optimal medical care | 550 |
10% overweight | 450 |
Vietnam army service | 400 |
Driving (man) | 360 |
Living in Southeast (SC,MS,GA,LA,AL) | 350 |
Smoking cigars | 330 |
Working in mining construction | 320 |
Drinking | 130-230 |
Salt intake[3] | 220 |
Smoking pipes | 220 |
Driving (men & women) | 207 |
Driving (women) | 150 |
Avid mountain climbing | 110 |
Drug abuse (legal drugs) | 90-100 |
Diabetic | 95 |
Air pollution | 80 |
Occupational accidents | 74 |
Small cars (vs. midsize) | 60 |
Married to smoker | 50 |
Drowning | 40 |
Speed limit: 65 vs. 55 miles per hour | 40 |
Falling down | 39 |
Walking/Pedestrian | 37 |
Poison + suffocation + asphyxiation | 37 |
Radon in homes | 7-35 |
Safe job | 30 |
Coffee: 2 cups/day | 6-26 |
Radiation worker, age 18-65 | 25-40 |
Illegal drugs | 18 |
Firearms | 11 |
Getting regular X-rays | 7 |
Biking | 5 |
Birth control pills | 5 |
Hurricanes, tornadoes | 1 |
Flying | 1 |
Living near a dam | 1 |
Living near nuclear plant | 0.4 |
Getting a regular PAP | -4 |
1 hour vigorous activity/day for a year[4] | -40 |
[2] Health Physics, Volume 61, Number 3, September 1991, Pages 317-335
[3] New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 371, Issue 7, August 2014, Pages 624-634
[4] American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 44, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 23–29