Thirty years ago, cancer and heart disease were the diseases of aging that Americans dreaded the most. People called cancer “The Big C.” In the United States in 1990, the death rate from cancer was 216 per 100,000 population. From that date on, there has been a steady and monotonic decline down to 157.5 per 100,000 population in 2017. There are multiple reasons for this. Many people who took up cigarette smoking in their youth, were dying of lung cancer in 1990. Continue reading →