America is getting sicker, and fatter, and blinder

Sicker, because they can't afford health care:

More than one in five adults had an unmet medical need in 2010, almost 20 percent hadn't seen a doctor within a year, and more than 60 percent hadn't seen a dentist. The proportion of people who went without health care because of cost increased from 8.8 percent in 2000 to 13.7 percent a decade later. Even Americans with health insurance reported poorer access to medical and dental care and said they went without health care they needed because of cost, the report says.

"By 2010, the access picture looked fairly bleak for many uninsured adults," according to the report. Forty-eight percent of the uninsured had seen a doctor within a year, a decrease from 54.5 percent 10 years earlier. Almost one-third of the uninsured didn't get medical care they needed because of cost in 2010, compared to 25.3 percent in 2000.

Fatter, via Slate:

New research from Duke University projects that the percentage of Americans who are severely obese—around 100 pounds or more overweight—will roughly double to 11 percent of the population by 2030, the Associated Press reports.

The researchers, who presented their findings Monday at the CDC's "Weight of the Nation” event, also project a 33 percent increase in the prevalence of overall obesity (defined as roughly 30 pounds or more overweight, according to USA Today) over the same time period. While previous research had suggested that about half of Americans would be obese by 2030, the new research projects that figure at a lower, but still worrisome, 42 percent.

CBS adds that 1/3 of US adults are currently obese (30 pounds overweight).

And blinder (I'm not convinced that's a real word in this context), or at least near-sighted:

In China, 85% of university students suffer from short-sightedness, according to surveys conducted by the country’s education ministry. At the Harbin Institute of Technology, for example, shortsightedness is so common that eyeglass cleaning cloths are hung in public spaces across campus, from the canteen to libraries, for harried students to use to wipe their lenses clean.

Nearsightedness in the U.S. and Europe ranges between 20% and 40% of the population.

Oddly, scientists suspect the culprit might be kids not spending enough time in sunlight, so their eyes grow too large from ages 20-25, thus causing myopia. Weird.