Harvard University Medical Center researchers were among the first to identify the alarming trend toward shorter lifespans for the average American. We need to ask ourselves why?

http://tinyurl.com/6ljmkyr

The answers are the foods we eat, the sedentary life styles engendered by such computer goodies as Facebook, Twitter, etc. and the pressures of living in a country where unemployment and hence insecurity is king, fast food is a large part of our diet and essentially everyone, including the people who were elected to help and protect us ripping us off.

Hey. I had a large pepperoni and bacon with extra cheese vegetable for dinner just last night. What's the problem?

No problem, but when you die early don't come to me for sympathy.

Actually, I've eaten incorrectly all my life, drank to excess, smoked cigarettes for 40+ years, did drugs, and the fact that I'm still here at my advanced age goes to show that diet, exercise and lifestyle effect some people differently from others.

IMO, it's genetics. My mother lived to age 106.

I think sustained physical and mental stress have a large effect on health and longevity.

We are poisoning ourselves with multiple sources. Food, materials and more. All these things that have safe levels of (insert chemical here) put together are not so safe. It is easy to trust industry and blindly move along with our lives....

Although this experiment is about the importance of organic, I am showing this also because of the interesting part showing the organic potato from the grocery store compared to the organic one from the local farmer. Most people don't get how we are poisoning ourselves with not only the boxed items, but the "healthy" "natural" foods.

I have heard various theories about stress, some saying that it's actually good for one to be stressed.

But as anecdotal information, I know that whenever I'm stressed I feel awful. So I tend to agree with you.

On another note, there's a medical show on Fox tv shown every Sunday morning, featuring a doctor giving viewers current medical information and answering questions. One of the things the doctor always says is "every medicine contains a little bit of poison."

When I watch tv and see ads for certain medications, and the warnings and caveats take up more time to speak of than the help the medicine provides, I'm not surprised we're dying earlier.

Since the weakening of government protective agencies by Ronald Reagan and other Republicans, medicines are permitted the side effects of which would horrify a panel of Spanish inquisition torturers.

In one particular case, a medication to help shrink an enlarged prostate can cause gynomastia and other highly undesirable side effects. A cosmetic to increase the length of eyelashes(!) may cause blindness.

When you hear our Republican presidential candidates speak of the free market, this laissez-faire kind of "to hell with the consumer" attitude is what they are speaking of, although they disguise it as criticism of "government interference."

In my experience so far in life, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the motive for profit and the motive for high standards.

There has also been a blurring in the definition of a 'public service' - one that blurs it into a 'business'.

Healthcare should be a non profit-making public service in my view (like the armed services) with standards given top priority. What better use for tax dollars?

However, American public opinion seems to have made their choice clear recently - and good luck to them and their insurers!