Like the man once said, the times they are a-changin’. As an article in this week’s JAMA illustrates, in much of the US life expectancy is rising. But where it’s not rising, life expectancy has not leveled off. Rather it’s dropping precipitously. Central Colorado has the highest life expectancy in the country, while counties in Kentucky, Oklahoma and Alabama are as much as 20 years lower. These findings are consistent with other studies that have shown that the US is failing to keep up with improvements in longevity in other developed countries. Here in Cook County, IL, our “constant protection of health” (at least since this poster from the Great Depression) has us somewhere in the vast middle with slow movement upward. At least it’s not a drop.














