Bad Economy May Be Good For Your Health

from the live-it-up dept

Lost your job? Can't pay the rent? Don't worry about... you're likely to be much healthier for it. A new study claims that as the unemployment rate goes up, people get healthier. It's tough to prove the correlation, but the researcher claims that he's taken into account many factors, and no one can find any fault in his study. He suggests that the short-term effects of a downturn help people get healthier. They have time to go to the gym and work out, and are motivated to make major (healthy) lifestyle changes. This doesn't take into account (of course) mental health issues. Of course, I'm confused by one major point in the study. It suggests you'll live longer for going through a short recession. However, if people are constantly going through busts and boom cycles, what does that mean? You can't separate out the single downturn to see what impact it has on someone's life expectancy. The researcher even claims that an extended downturn isn't healthy for anyone. So, how does he look at the specific single downturn period?