Oct

Heart Disease Numbers

Health related statistics don’t mean much to the average person.

People are generally (understandably) concerned with their own health and that of their families to be overly worried about the health of the rest of the population.

However, occasionally some numbers do make us sit up and take notice. Hopefully! I wanted to bring one such number to your attention.

A recent report published by the American Heart Association stated that less than 8 percent of the American population are considered to be at low-risk for developing heart disease.

Let me repeat that. Less than 8 percent of the American population are considered to be at low-risk for developing heart disease.

That means 92% of the American adult population is at risk of developing some form of cardiovascular disease during their lifetimes. Worrying thought isn’t it?

This amazing number is an estimate from four national surveys of adults aged 25 to 74, compiled by Dr Earl Ford of the CDC’s Adult and Community Health Division.

The criteria they used to consider low risk was:

Not currently smoking
“Normal” blood pressure
Not on medication for high blood pressure
A healthy cholesterol level
A BMI of less than 25
And no diagnosis of diabetes.

Not overly hard to achieve.

You may be thinking that this is just America – that it doesn’t affect us here in the UK or Europe.

According to Guy De Backer, MD for the European Society of Cardiology “This paper should act as a wake-up call in Europe as well as the US since overall European risk factors are not so different.”

So take a moment to think about your family and friends. How many of them have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Do you know anyone with diabetes or someone who is overweight?

I think we all know at least one person that meets one of these criteria – perhaps even someone who meets them all.

So, the big question is “is it too late to do anything about it?”

Of course not.

By making changes to what and how we eat, moving a little more throughout the day, and just keeping an eye on our stress levels, we can have a huge impact on our health.

It won’t be quick and may not be easy (although you may be pleasantly surprised) but isn’t worth making the effort?

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