Remarkably little media attention has been given to some excellent news announced on Wednesday: U.S. deaths from heart disease dropped by 28 percent and those from stroke declined by 45 percent between 1997 and 2007, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
This improvement reflects dramatic continued improvements in both the treatment and diagnosis of these ailments, says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross.
“Not surprisingly, none of this good news has shown up in The New York Times,” says ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom. “I guess anything that makes drug companies look even remotely good doesn’t interest them.”
Still, the news comes with some cautions. Not enough is being done in terms of prevention of heart disease and strokes. Dr. Ross notes that, “There’s a big three that we can look to for prevention: lipid levels — cholesterol especially, smoking and blood pressure. Although millions of Americans are taking them, statins are still dramatically underutilized. We know from population surveys that two to three times as many people should be taking them in this country as do right now. Reducing the numbers of smokers from the current figure of 45 million is also hugely important. And then there’s identifying and treating chronic high blood pressure.” The AHA reports that only forty percent of American hypertension sufferers receive treatment for the condition — and many of those are not attaining adequate control.
ACSH intern Susan Ingber also points to other means of prevention as critical to the fight, including engaging in regular exercise and avoiding excess alcohol consumption and obesity.
