Originally Posted by Clearedtocross

Can you describe the data that shows that our shortened life span is attributed to “young men dying due to violence”? It would take a heck a lot of young deaths, as you say, to decrease US longevity by 4-6 years. Doesn't seem plausible!

The other part, about socioeconomic factors, do play a role, but many of the countries that exceed our longevity are considered fairly poor. Americans, despite our advanced medical services, are not all that healthy.

Looking this up now - does show the spike (gun deaths, car accidents, and drugs & alcohol) as you said, but then we have a very high rate of vascular disease, metabolic & obesity related diseases, and don’t do all that well with cancer - these come on later in life. It also mentions high rates of Alzheimer’s in the US which isn’t helpful if we are trying to fly longer. So your response has some truth to it, but doesn’t appear to account for all of the shortened life span.