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| » Heavy load on the heart |
12 February 2010
DECADES of progress in the United States on cutting cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking are being stalled by rising obesity rates, and heart disease will kill around 400,000 Americans this year, experts said.
A study by British scientists found that around half of those deaths could be averted if people ate healthier food and quit smoking, and experts warned there was no room for complacency when it came to heart health risks.
Simon Capewell of the University of Liverpool said recent weight trends were "alarming", with 1.5 billion adults worldwide expected to be overweight by 2015.
"Although (heart disease) death rates have been falling in the US for four decades, they are now levelling off in young men and women," he wrote in a study in the World Health Organisation’s weekly journal.
"Recent declines in total blood cholesterol have been modest, blood pressure is now rising among women, and obesity and diabetes are rising steeply in both sexes."
The researchers calculated the number of deaths based on lifestyle trends, taking the year 2000 as a base. They found that almost 200,000 lives could be saved if certain heart risk factors were cut, even modestly.
Two-thirds of American adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese - a condition that increases their risk for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses.
But Shanthi Mendis, an expert on chronic disease prevention at the Geneva-based WHO, noted that the US was not alone in facing an obesity epidemic, and said lifestyle choices now directly affected the health of many of the world’s people.
"Worldwide, nearly one billion adults are overweight and, if no action is taken, this figure will surpass 1.5 billion by 2015," she said in the study.
"By avoiding tobacco, eating a healthy diet and engaging in regular physical activity, people can dramatically reduce their risk of developing heart disease, stroke or diabetes." - Reuters
This article was first published in sun2surf.com on 28 December 2010
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