POLL: Do you feel you live a healthier lifestyle in Spain?
Thursday, July 25, 2019 @ 9:38 PM
The Spanish have the highest healthy life expectancy in Europe – and beat Australia, Canada, Norway and the USA as well. This in part is thanks to an excellent healthcare system, ranked seventh in 2000 on the only occasion the World Health Organisation has compiled a league table. The UK was 18th. But it is not just the structures or even the skills of the doctors that matter. It is also the state of health of the people who arrive in the clinics.
Maybe the Mediterranean diet, heavy on fruit, salads, fish and olive oil, is responsible for the low death rate from heart disease – Spain has the 3rd lowest level of years of life lost. It also does well on a number of cancers – pancreatic, prostate, breast and oesophageal. Families still care for ailing relatives – taking daily meals to those in hospital is normal and premature deaths from falls are low.
According to the European League Table, comprised of data collected over a 20 year period by medical journal, Lancet, Spain is the healthiest place to live compared with 18 other countries in the EU.
Ranking number one for life expectancy, Spanish residents live for an average of 81.4 years-two years longer than people living in Britain. They can also expect to enjoy up to 70.9 years of good health, compared with only 68.6 years of healthy life for the average Brit. The UK was left lagging behind in 12th place behind Greece, Ireland and Germany. It is also considered that the Spanish attitude to drinking alcohol and the weather plays an important role, encouraging a more outdoor lifestyle.
Do you feel you live a healthier lifestyle in Spain?
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