�Թϲ�����

The state of the union's health is improving. But it is doing so very unequally, and recent signs of progress are in danger of being reversed by diseases of excess and despair, including obesity, depression, suicide and substance abuse. Those are the broad conclusions of a new roundup of Americans' vital signs published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. (Healy, 4/10)

A grim tally of “years of life lost” shows that substance abuse, suicides and diabetes drove a rise in premature deaths in nearly half the country, according to researchers who mapped variations in death rates among people 20 to 55 years old. The research offers a detailed look at the trends pulling down life expectancy among young and middle-aged Americans in recent years. So-called “deaths of despair,” including drug overdoses, have been on the rise, especially among white Americans, according to recent studies. (McKay and Rigdon, 4/10)

A University of Washington national analysis of premature death, found Minnesota has the lowest rate of what are called "years of life lost," based on data from 1990 to 2016. University global health professor, Ali Mokdad said living circumstances and lifestyle choices determine premature death rates. (Zdechlik, 4/10)

A national study released Tuesday provides a state-by-state look at life expectancy and the factors that are killing Floridians, and as one might expect, opioid abuse is near the top of the list. The years of life lost due to opioid use in the state jumped more than 750 percent over the past 26 years, according to The State of U.S. Heath study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Ochoa, 4/10)