Americans are short and don't live very long

According to this news story in Discovery (via TAMU Anthro. in the News) Americans ranks 42nd in life expectancy. This follows a story a few months ago about Americans being short compared to other "Western" nations. (I assume they controlled for recent immigrants and other obvious confounders). From the Discovery story on life expectancy:

"A baby born in the United States in 2004 will live an average of 77.9 years. That life expectancy ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Andorra, a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, had the longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years, according to the Census Bureau. It was followed by Japan, Macau, San Marino and Singapore."