Whatever else can be said about the U.S. health system, this point is indisputable and indisputably painful: Hundreds of thousands of Americans die prematurely and unnecessarily because they do not have or cannot get access to the best preventive care possible.

Recent data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention underscore this point. If good health care and good health practices were universal, the CDC estimates roughly 20 to 40 percent of premature deaths in the U.S. from the five leading causes of death — heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke and accidents — could be avoided.

That translates to perhaps as many as 300,000 persons each year.

The CDC didn't weigh in on the obvious policy and political aspects of the phenomenon, but it did repeat advice we all should know and follow: Exercise more. Eat better. Lose weight. Quit smoking. Use sunscreen. Wear seatbelts and helmets when appropriate. Get regular checkups.

BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

The average human head has approximately 100,000 hair follicles. Blondes and people with black hair tend to have more (140,000 and 110,000, respectively), while those with brown hair meet the average and redheads have the least dense hair, about 86,000 follicles.

The typical follicle produces about 20 individual hairs over a person's lifetime, a long-term cycle of growth, stasis and replacement. Baldness occurs when follicles run out of hairs before their owners run out of years.

GET ME THAT. STAT!

In 2010, according to the CDC, the five leading causes of death in the United States (see above) accounted for 63 percent of all deaths. The next five — Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, kidney disease, influenza and pneumonia, suicide — accounted for just 12 percent of total deaths.

DOC TALK

Ptosis — drooping of the eyelid

PHOBIA OF THE WEEK

Aichmophobia — fear of needles and other pointed objects

NEVER SAY DIET

The Major League Eating speed-eating record for glazed, cream-filled doughnuts is 47 in five minutes, held by Patrick Bertoletti. Warning: Most of these records are held by professional eaters; the rest by people who really should find something better to do.

BEST MEDICINE

A Brief History of Medicine

2000 B.C. — Here, eat this root.

1000 A.D. — That root is heathen. Say this prayer.

1850 A.D. — That prayer is superstition. Drink this potion.

1940 A.D. — That potion is snake oil. Swallow this pill.

1985 A.D. — That pill is ineffective. Take this antibiotic.

2014 A.D. — That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.

OBSERVATION

"It's easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet." — American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

EPITAPHS

A headstone in Ribbesford, England:

The children of Israel wanted bread

And the Lord sent them manna.

Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife,

And the Devil sent him Anna.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.