(Reuters Health) – Americans today are expected to live shorter lives than just a few years ago, in contrast with trends seen in other developed nations, and rising deaths from alcohol-related liver disease may be partly to blame, researchers say.
Analyzing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they found that U.S. deaths from alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) are at their highest levels since 1999 and have risen every year since 2006 in nearly every racial, ethnic and age group.
“I bet a lot of people would be surprised by the statistic that life expectancy is actually falling in the United States,” lead study author Dr. Andrew Moon of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said in a phone interview.
“We think that increasing alcohol use is likely playing a role and then possibly in combination with an increase in other underlying liver diseases, putting people at increased risk for alcohol-related liver disease,” Moon told Reuters…
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