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March 8, 2025 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
05:54
Americans 65 and Older Are Sicker Than Ever
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So, let me see.
Sorry, I have to throw in percent here.
It's a crazy percent.
It's a crazy percent.
Oh, yeah.
Here we go.
Here we go.
I found it.
94.9% of adults age 60 and over have at least one chronic condition.
Right?
So, 19 out of 20 adults age 60 and older have at least one chronic health condition.
And 78.7% have two or more.
Isn't that wild?
42% of adults 60 and older are obese.
Not overweight.
Obese.
Isn't that wild?
So what do we got?
10 common chronic conditions for adults 65 plus.
Hypertension, high blood pressure, high cholesterol.
Obesity, arthritis, ischemic coronary heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, depression, Alzheimer's disease, and dementia.
Oh my god.
And this is up considerably from the past.
No, it's absolutely, it's crazy how sickly people are.
Now, you know, 70-75% of health issues are lifestyle-related, which means you chose.
You made bad choices and you got sick.
So people are like crazy unwell.
People are crazy unwell.
I mean, there's bone health issues.
There is, of course, the diabetes management.
Diabetes is going to take 15 years off your life, as far as I've read.
It's mad.
Now, I'm 58, so I'm getting there.
I'm getting there.
And, you know, maybe I'll have some issues, but nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
And of course, on average, a 65-year-old can expect to live another 18.9 million years.
Crazy.
27% of the U.S. adult population has multiple chronic conditions, which cost the American healthcare system over a trillion dollars each year.
It's the usual 90 to 95% of healthcare costs are 5 to 10% of the population and two thirds of your entire lifetime's healthcare costs are in the last couple of months of your life.
I did eight and a half hours of exercise last week because it's really, really important.
In 2022, 36.3% of older adults had not seen a dentist in the last year.
Now, I used to go every three months.
Now, I go every four months.
You just have to take care of your teeth.
One in five adults age 65 plus have untreated dental caries or cavities.
I don't know why they're...
Put that way, one in four older adults have a behavioral health problem such as depression, anxiety, or substance abuse.
People aged 85 plus have the highest rates of suicide compared to any other age group.
In 2020, over 11,000 adults aged 65 plus died from alcohol-induced causes.
Oof.
Oof.
Let me tell you.
People are sick.
Just sick.
And what is it about is only one or two percent of the U.S. healthcare budget is spent on prevention?
Of course!
Of course, because chronic diseases make money.
And so waiting until people get sick and then medicating them forever is by far the most profitable model for the healthcare system as it exists.
By 2060, almost a quarter of the population is going to be 65 or older.
Flu, is it flu or pneumonia that's called the old man's benefit, a benefactor?
It's really something.
Yeah, people are like crazy unwell.
People are just crazy, crazy unwell.
You know, you don't see...
I mean, and of course, when you see really old people, they tend to be very skinny, right?
You don't see old fat people.
Percent of non-institutionalized persons with hypertension measured high blood pressure or taking high blood pressure medication.
This is from 2017 to March 2020. Men aged 65 to 74, almost 72%.
Men aged 75 and older, 83.2%.
Women aged 65 to 74, 73.7%.
Women aged 75 and older, 84.1%.
It's brutal.
And of course, I'm at the age where people's health decisions are really catching up with them.
People's bad health decisions are really, really catching up with them.
Social isolation and loneliness is a big problem.
People who have hearing loss tend to get a little bit more dementia.
People who are isolated and lonely have high risks of dementia, serious health problems, and so on.
About 8 in 10 older adults struggle to use medical documents like forms or charts.
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