(Wall Street Journal) – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made combating chronic disease a rallying cry as he looks to overhaul the health department and “Make America Healthy Again.”

So how healthy is America, historically? It isn’t that we used to be healthier, data show, but the biggest threats have changed.

The deadliest scourges in the U.S. were once infectious, with influenza and tuberculosis topping the list at the start of the 20th century. Better sanitation and advances in antibiotics and vaccines muzzled them, transforming Americans’ well-being. Medical innovations and antismoking campaigns then spurred decades of progress against heart disease and cancer.

But chronic diseases, persistent or long-lasting health conditions, are undermining that momentum, contributing to our stalled life expectancy over the past decade that trails behind that of other wealthy nations. (Read More)