For 50 years, strokes have been the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer.
We've been told that COPD -- lung diseases -- would take over the third spot by the year 2020. Now we're told COPD, a condition that most of us Alphas share, rushed into third place 12 years early -- in 2008.
Thanks to the smoking boom 30-40 years ago, especially among women, lung disease is rising fast as a killer. But did it suddenly speed up?
No. Turns out, we're just counting differently. David Mannino is among the lung specialists who say deaths from COPD have been under-counted for many years. He's quoted here.