Cardiovascular Disease Getting Worse in Some States

According to a new report in USAToday, cardiovascular disease was getting better nationwide, but now doctors are saying that the declines in deaths and disease has slowed in some places to almost nothing.

The article quotes Dr. Gregory Roth, an assistant professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. “This is a completely preventable set of diseases. We know what works.”

Basic steps like not smoking and eating a healthier diet with less lard contributed to the initial major drop, but the increase in obesity and diabetes, the numbers aren’t nearly as promising.

The report emphasizes that managing poor diet, inactivity, smoking, and diabetes doesn’t account for everything.

“We don’t know for sure what is causing it,” says Hilary Wall, a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control.

Unequal access to medical care and other socioeconomic pressures most likely also contribute, as well as a persistent misunderstanding of how prevalent and dangerous cardiovascular diseases is.*

 According to the American Heart Association’s 2019 Statistics Update:

• Cardiovascular disease is the underlying cause of death for one in three deaths.
• Cardiovascular diseases claim more lives each year than all forms of cancer and Chronic Respiratory Disease combined.
• Someone in the USA has a stroke every 40 seconds.
• Stroke, by itself, ranks as the number 5 cause of death in the USA.

 *USAToday, April 15, 2019, Progress Against Heart Disease Stalls: “We are at a point of stagnation.”