I came across a fascinating statistic in an otherwise bad news article from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=auKPjdGB8wNs&refer=us
The piece describes how U.S. health care costs are skyrocketing, to a great extent because of bad behavior on our part (obesity, smoking and the like). In contrast, our counterparts in Europe have lower health care costs and a longer life expectancy than we do.
Osteoporosis, however, is the one chronic disease diagnosed more frequently in Europe than in America, according to the article. (Nearly eight percent of Europeans compared to five percent in the U.S.) Yet I'd be curious to know -- since the article didn't explain -- if the difference is due to better awareness and care of our bone health, or if we're simply dying of cardiac disease and other illnesses before we have a chance to break our bones.
