Category: General

  • Discover America’s Fastest Declining States in Population Trends

    Discover America’s Fastest Declining States in Population Trends

    As of 2022, the United States of America had a 0.4% increase in its population after the pandemic in 2020-2021. The main reason for this growth was the high rate of immigrants in the country at that time. However, recent statistics show that the United States has gone back to its population before the pandemic era.

    Furthermore, population growth was noticed in several states in the US, with the Southern United States being the most populated. The region had over 1.28 million residents, and the Western United States had an increase of 153,601.

    Contrary to the increase in these two regions, the Northeast and Midwest saw a reduction in population. The Northeast witnessed a 0.4% reduction, and the Midwest a 0.1% reduction.

    The United States Returns to Population Pre-pandemic

    In 2023, the US population was approximately 3.3 million, and the death rate had significantly reduced. Furthermore, migration patterns have returned to their former levels before the pandemic. The reduction in the death rate and the reversion of migration patterns to their former levels before the pandemic is responsible for the growth.

    Also, as the nation’s population grew, the birth rate reduced. The decline in the birth rate didn’t affect the nation’s growth because the death rate at that time was nearly 9%. Additionally, large numbers of people were migrating to the country at that time, and because of this, the country experienced its largest population growth since its last one in 2018.

    ALSO READ: California Experiences Growing Budget Deficit Once Again

    State-wise Population Growth

    A picture of Texas sign post
    Source: Pinterest

    Some states in the United States experienced significant population growth. One such state is Texas. As of 2021 and 2022, the state’s numeric growth was recorded as 470,707, and its resident population was over 30 million. After Texas, Florida came second. Florida had a population increase of 416,754 due to new residents.

    As of last year, South Carolina had the highest growth rate amongst other states. Despite being a cheap state compared to others, it has the most growth. It surpassed Texas and Florida with 0.1%. At the same time, Texas and Florida were behind South Carolina, with a growth rate of 1.6%.

    The Fastest Declining States in Descending Order

    A picture of Illinois suburb migrants
    Source: Pinterest

    According to the 2022 National and State Population Estimates, the states that ranked the lowest were Ohio, Alaska, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Maryland. Ohio, Alaska, and Massachusetts only experienced a population reduction of 0.1%, and New Mexico and Maryland experienced a 0.2% reduction in the number of residents.

    The states with the middle rank were California, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Oregon. California, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi experienced a 0.3% population reduction. The state with the highest reduction was California.

    ALSO READ: Montana’s Dramatic Property Tax Hike Sparks Outrage From Residents

    On the other hand, Oregon had a numeric decrease of 16,164, with a higher population decline of 0.4%. Now, to the top five fastest-declining states. At number five is Aloha State, which had a population decline of 0.5% in 2022 compared to 2021. One major reason for this reduction was the increase in the cost of living and house prices.

    The state also experienced slow economic growth. After Aloha is West Virginia, which lost 0.6% of its population between 2021 and 2022. Between 2021 and 2022, Louisiana also experienced a population reduction of -0.8%.

    Illinois’ population reduced by 0.8% in the same year as the other three. Last year, the state recorded about 32,836 residents, which is lower than the number in 2022. The state that topped the list was New York.

    New York experienced a great reduction because of a mass exodus, thanks to its high crime rate and high cost of living. According to Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, “Hardworking, law-abiding citizens are sick and tired of left-wing politicians putting illegal immigrants and criminals ahead of them.”

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  • New Study Finds Cancer Rates Rising in Young People Due to “Accelerated Aging”

    New Study Finds Cancer Rates Rising in Young People Due to “Accelerated Aging”

    Researchers looking for clues about why some types of cancer are on the rise in younger adults say they’ve found an exciting lead: a connection to accelerated biological aging. Aging is a major risk for many types of cancer.

    This means that the older you get, the more likely you are to be diagnosed. Increasingly, experts recognize that age is more than just the number of candles on a birthday cake. Body wear and tear, caused by lifestyle, stress, and genetics, is sometimes known as a person’s biological age.

    “We all know cancer is an aging disease. However, it is coming to a younger population. So whether we can use the well-developed concept of biological aging to apply that to the younger generation is an untouched area,” said Dr. Yin Cao. 

    Biological Age Was Used To Check the Algorithm for Cancer Diagnosis

    Cao and her team examined the medical records of 148,724 people ages 37 to 54 who participate in an extensive data registry called the UK Biobank. They homed in on nine blood-based markers that have been shown to correlate with biological age.

    The blood-based markers are albumin, creatinine, glucose, c-reactive protein, lymphocyte percent, mean cell volume, red cell distribution width, alkaline phosphatase, and white blood cell counts. 

    ALSO READ: A Faster Way To Detect Aging Cells

    These nine values were then plugged into an algorithm called PhenoAge, which calculated each person’s biological age. The researchers determined accelerated aging by comparing people’s biological and chronological ages.

    A picture of older and younger adults
    Source: Pinterest

    They then checked cancer registries to see how many in the group had been diagnosed with early cancers. They defined this as cancers appearing before age 55 and nearly 3,200 cancers diagnosed.

    The researchers found that people born in 1965 or later were 17% more likely to show accelerated aging than those born from 1950 through 1954. 

    What Faster Aging Could Tell Us About Cancer Risk?

    The researchers adjusted the data for factors they thought might bias their results. Then, they found that accelerated aging was associated with an increased risk for cancer. The strongest associations were seen with lung, stomach, intestinal, and uterine cancers.

    Compared with people who had the smallest amount of faster aging in the biobank sample, those who scored highest had twice the risk of early-onset lung cancer. More than 60% are at a higher risk of a gastrointestinal tumor, and more than 80% are at a higher risk of uterine cancer.

    A Way To Find Young People With a Risk of Cancer

    Dr. Anne Blaes studies the impact of biological aging in cancer survivors at the University of Minnesota. He said the study results are exciting because they could point to a better way to find people who are at higher risk of getting cancer when they’re young. 

    Right now, young adults who don’t have a family history or other risk factors aren’t regularly screened for most kinds of cancer.

    “We’re seeing more and more cancers, especially GI cancers and breast cancers, in younger individuals. And if we had a way of identifying who’s at higher risk for those, then really, you can imagine we’d be recommending screening at a different time,” said Blaes.

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    Blaes is a professor and director of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at UM Medical School. However, she was not involved in the new research.

    A Faster Way To Detect Aging Cells

    Blaes said it’s easy to find people at higher risk because their cells are aging faster. Also, you can target lifestyle interventions, such as nutrition, exercise, and sleep.

    A Picture of One of Cancer Symptoms
    Source: Pinterest

    “There are medications that also look like they can slow down accelerated aging,” said Blaes, who is testing two of them in cancer survivors. Cancer survivors often show greater biological aging, perhaps because of the after-effects of therapies like chemotherapy and radiation.

    The medications belong to a class called senolytics; drugs thought to target and eliminate damaged and aging cells. Right now, it’s not clear who might benefit from these drugs. Assessments of accelerated aging like PhenoAge could one day help doctors identify the people who most need them.

    “It’s super interesting. It’s not quite prime time when we would go out and prescribe those medications for people. This is important work,” Blaes said.

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