The Centers for Disease Control have released new stats on life expectancy that should have even more geezers thinking adoption is a great idea.

Latest findings show that we've hit a record of 77.9 years, up from 77.5 in 2003. The gap between men and women is narrowing, too, from the 7 extra years women used to get to 5.2 years now, so the life expectancy for women is just over 80 years, and for men it's barely under 75.

The gap between white and black Americans is also closing.

Heart disease is the leading killer, but deaths from it fell 16% between 2000 and 2004, while deaths from cancer dropped 8%.

Going up, however, and especially among older adults, diabetes, with 11% of Americans between the ages of 40 and 59, and 23% of the over 60s having the disease.

I wrote earlier today about kids and pain and how it's a vital part of life. I was, of course, speaking of acute pain ... the kind that comes with injury or illness, then goes. Chronic pain is something completely different.

The CDC study looked at pain, as well.

Apparently, low back pain is among the most common complaints, along with migraine or severe headache, and joint pain, aching or stiffness. The knee is the joint that causes the most pain according to the report.

Some of the other pain statistics include:

One-fifth of adults 65 years and older said they had experienced pain in the past month that persisted for more than 24 hours.

Almost three-fifths of adults 65 and older with pain said it had lasted for one year or more.

More than one-quarter of adults interviewed said they had experienced low back pain in the past three months.

Fifteen percent of adults experienced migraine or severe headache in the past three months. Adults ages 18-44 were almost three times as likely as adults 65 and older to report migraines or severe headaches.

Reports of severe joint pain increased with age, and women reported severely painful joints more often than men (10 percent versus 7 percent).

Between the periods 1988-94 and 1999-2002, the percentage of adults who took a narcotic drug to alleviate pain in the past month rose from 3.2 percent to 4.2 percent.

The report also found that people in the United States spent an average of $6,280 each on health care in 2004. Seven percent of adults under 65 said they passed up getting needed care in the past 12 months due to costs.

So ... we're living longer, but it hurts a bit.

So it goes.

For information about pain and pain management, go to Pain.Com, the NIH pain site, FamilyDoctor.Org, and the ASAHQ.