Heart Disease #1

From The Week Magazine:

"Heart disease is the leading cause of death throughout the world, killing more people than AIDS, malaria, pneumonia, or lung cancer. One out of every three deaths is caused by heart disease."

It's seems to me that heart disease is not a glamorous cause of death. AIDS and cancer... these are glamorous to the American public. These are the diseases that make headlines and receive research dollars.

But given the numbers, it seems Americans would be better served to focus on reducing instances of heart disease. I don't think that will happen though. Here's why...

Research can't cure heart disease; exercise and improved diets can. And those are things Americans are just not interested in. They'd rather not think about taking responsibility for their own health. It's easier to give that responsibility to researchers and big pharma.

Agree or disagree? Post a comment.

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Comments

[Suzy]

I think you're right... we Americans want the easy way out. It's responsibility that we need to take, and in this fast paced world, it's just easier to eat wrong, eat out, come home tired, and never exercise. It's scary, isn't it? Wishing you well....

[Sarah Parker]

I agree--and I also want to offer another view--- I think that over time, Americans have become so brainwashed by the allopathic medicine community that many people truly believe that popping pills is the answer to their health problems. I know of a woman who has to take 18 (!) different meds a day. I think people like her are merely conditioned to think this is a normal part of life. People are conditioned to trust doctors (who have little to no nutritional knowledge.)

[[email protected]]

I recently read that men with a low intake of chromium may be at greater risk of heart attack. But don't go popping chromium supplement pills, guys... According to The UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, July 2003: The best and safest source of chromium is food. Whole grains, ready-to-eat bran cereals, seafood, green beans, broccoli, prunes, nuts, peanut butter, and potatoes are rich in chromium. Sugary foods are low in this mineral and may even promote chromium loss; vitamin C may increase its absorption. Don’t exceed the amount in multivitamin/mineral pills—20 to 120 micrograms—which preferably should not be in the form of chromium picolinate.

Mmmm... prunes... :) hehe
Be healthy!
[email protected]

[Buzzoodle Ron]

Not only do I agree but that is the exact message of one of our clients. I thought I was reading his writing when I read that.

If interested, his website is http://www.healthybodyweight.com

Disclosure: I am paid to promote this book, but this is not spam and his site is full of relevant information on this very topic.

[Susan]

Prevention is key to fighting all diseases--AIDS and Cancer included. We need to educate ourselves, as well as rely on the experts for steps to take to be healthy. I am in the continuing medical education business and know that docs take heart disease very seriously (we have several webcasts on our site anyone can view for free if anyone is interested). Pharma can help to some extent, especially with cholesterol lowering drugs, but as you said, we need to take responsibility for our bodies and that means finding out what our risks are and how best to offset those risks with diet, exercise, medications, and vigilance.

[Amanda]

I do agree that Heart Disease is the number one killer of Americans year after year, of course this condition is modifiable, especially by our diets and our overall wellness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does state, Heart Disease as the number one killers of all races/ ethnicities males and females. I would definetly recommend all of you looking at these websites: cdc.gov or even healthypeople.gov to get more of an insite of where the national and state statistics are on the top causes of deaths.

[Susan R]

Heart disease of course a big problem in everywhere I think the WHO ought to the stress every government & policy maker if they are serious about the health care of the nation they will immediately take some steps to bring revutionary changes into our health care systems.

[Andrew Spark]

Health care is a great importance to many individuals and we need to work on improving health care for all.

[Sainnatrigh]

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