I recently read this in an online news article concerning the recession and its effect on health:
... Strange as it may seem, bad times can also be good for health. Forget individual health for a minute. This is about the macro picture, the health of entire societies. And there, statistics show that as economics worsen, traffic accidents go down, as do industrial accidents, obesity, alcohol consumption and smoking. Population-wide, even deaths from heart disease go down during recessions.
"Deaths go down when unemployment goes up," says Christopher J. Ruhm, professor of economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, who for the last few years has been publishing counterintuitive and controversial papers on the economy and health. Put total mortality numbers on a spreadsheet, he's found, and the population's physical well-being improves as just about every measure of economic health dips.
So, I guess all those people biking to work now have never been in better health. And, because we’re eating out less to save money we’re probably eating lots healthier at home: smaller portions, less calories, less preservatives, etc.
Talk about trying to find a silver lining (or, maybe just a brass or copper lining, because this is a recession ...). Interesting, huh?
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