Bad news, guys. For the first time since the early 1900s when the Spanish Flu was killing people off, the life expectancy of American women is falling. In nearly 1,000 counties — most evident in the Deep South, Appalachia, and the lower Midwest — women’s life expectancy is now shorter than it was in the 1980s. The driving force behind this trend appears to be increases in deaths from diabetes, lung cancer, emphysema, and kidney failure. Smoking like fiends, eating poorly and skipping out on exercise hasn’t helped, either. [Washington Post]
