The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics just released some sobering news: Life expectancy in the United States dropped for the second year in a row due in large part to the 21 percent rise in drug overdose deaths to a whopping 63,600. That’s a staggering number that equates to 174 deaths everyday, just short of the number of casualties on 9/11 every two weeks.
With fatal overdoses now surpassing death rates from guns, automobile accidents, and peak HIV death rates it’s no wonder that the country has paid increasing attention to the opioid epidemic. However, it’s important to note that the opioid crisis is only the tip of the iceberg. Tobacco, alcohol, and cocaine also continue to kill Americans at alarming rates.
Like so many other health issues, the answer likely lays upstream, that is in prevention of addictions in the first place. Fortunately, or unfortunately, many of these negative outcomes stem from the same source- adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). By turning our attention towards our children by preventing, identifying, and addressing ACEs we may begin to make headways into the opioid epidemic and other addictions.
[For more on this story by DR. DANIEL SCHATZ, go to http://thehill.com/opinion/hea...rces-into-prevention]
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