4 ms·
Wasn't that the theory based on results of people who lived through the 1930s US Great Depression. The lack of food actually improved life expectancy. https://
by dghughes 6y ago
Wasn't that the theory based on results of people who lived through the 1930s US Great Depression. The lack of food actually improved life expectancy.
https://www.pnas.org/content/106/41/17290 https://www.pnas.org/content/106/41/17290
>Population health did not decline and indeed generally improved during the 4 years of the Great Depression, 1930–1933, with mortality decreasing for almost all ages, and life expectancy increasing by several years in males, females, whites, and nonwhites. For most age groups, mortality tended to peak during years of strong economic expansion (such as 1923, 1926, 1929, and 1936–1937). In contrast, the recessions of 1921, 1930–1933, and 1938 coincided with declines in mortality and gains in life expectancy.
- User23 6y agoIndeed. And as it happens my father is a member of that cohort. He's still alive and has looked 20 years younger than he is for his entire adult life.
- nabla9 6y agoDecreased smoking and alcohol used might be the reason. Pregnant women smoking and drinking was common.
- redis_mlc 6y agoPerhaps for some. Others died of starvation or in food riots, which was suppressed by the media. (Politicians didn't want to offer bread lines because of "moral hazard.") Protest camps were setup around the Whitehouse.