Comment by Alex3917
13 years ago
"Arguing anything other than differences in levels of exercise/activity and calorie intake has a large mountain of evidence to overcome."
Not accurate. Smoking takes about 10 years off life expectancy, which is thought to be the reason why hispanics have a longer life expectancy than non-hispanic whites in the US. Mental illness takes another 10 - 15 years off life expectancy. Being religious adds a couple years to life expectancy, as does social belongingness in general.
> Mental illness takes another 10 - 15 years off life expectancy
"Mental illness" is a pretty broad category. Can you offer a source for this?
Have been thinking about this and wondered about suicide. Assuming you count 100% of suicides as relating to mental health related deaths (which I personally don't), it wouldnt take too many young people taking their lives to lower the population average lifespan. However alone suicide wouldn't take that many years off the average.