Some news is good news. The recent news that a simple blood test could one day be used to predict the risk of heart disease and heart attacks is evidence of that.
But ultimately, each of us will be responsible for ensuring that the good news continues, since we are in the best position to lower our own risk of cardiovascular disease.
Cardiovascular disease is a general category that includes heart disease, diseases of the blood vessels, and stroke.
Although there is more good news in that deaths from cardiovascular disease have been steadily declining, cardiovascular diseases are still responsible for more deaths than any other disease.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, more than 71,000 people died of cardiovascular disease in 2005, the last year for which statistics are available.
Cardiovascular disease accounts for 30 per cent of all deaths, and someone in Canada succumbs to the disease about every seven minutes.
Ischemic heart disease (disease involving reduced blood supply to the heart, usually from atherosclerosis) accounts for about 54 per cent of these deaths, while heart attacks and strokes account for 24 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.
But cardiovascular disease is not all about dying; it's also about living. More than five per cent of Canadians live with some form of heart disease. And the number increases with age, as about 28 per cent of those over 80 have heart disease.
Needless to say, heart disease places tremendous pressure on the health care system, as it accounts for 15.4 per cent of all hospitalizations.
The total cost to the economy, including physician services, hospital costs, lost wages and decreased productivity, is estimated at $22.2 billion annually.
The good news is that things are getting better.
The rates of heart disease and stroke declined by a dramatic 70 per cent between 1956 and 2002, and declined 25 per cent in just the last 10 years.
This development helps to alleviate pressure on hospitals, as the rate of hospitalizations for ischemic heart disease declined by 25 per cent between 1994-95 and 2003-04, and the rate of hospitalizations for acute heart attacks declined by nine per cent.
This good news is no doubt the result of a number of factors, including improved diagnostic methods and treatments.
But we can't underestimate the impact of increased public understanding of risk factors and means of prevention, and the public's willingness to do what is necessary to improve heart health by managing those risks.
The risk factors for cardiovascular disease are reasonably well known, but they bear repeating, since many are preventable, and all are manageable: being overweight, smoking, physical inactivity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, excessive alcohol consumption and diabetes.
Methods of prevention also bear repeating since they can dramatically reduce the risks: healthy eating (moderate meals with plenty of fruits and vegetables), exercise (30 to 60 minutes a day), maintaining a healthy weight, typically through healthy eating and exercise, living smoke-free, and reducing blood pressure and cholesterol, along with prescribed medications.
The development of new and improved tests for predicting the risk of heart disease is great.
But what's even better is that each of us has the ability to reduce those risks dramatically.
source: vancouversun
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