Heart Month Should Really Be Heart Year
As you might have heard, February was heart month. A whole month dedicated to heart health. But is a month really long enough? Heart disease is the number one killer in America, with nearly 600,000 deaths annually attributed to some form of heart disease (that’s nearly 1 in every 4 deaths). Coronary heart disease (CHD, a disease where a waxy substance called plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries restricting the flow of blood to the heart) is the most common, claiming nearly 380,000 lives annually. If you think flowers and dinner for Valentine’s Day can be pricey, the estimated yearly cost of CHD alone to the United States is $108.9 billion.
While February is often a month for love, here are some cold hard facts:
- Over 67 million Americans have high blood pressure, one of the three key heart disease risk factors according to the CDC.
- Overall, 49% of Americans have at least one of the three key risk factors.
- 720,000 Americans will have a heart attack this year, with almost 30% of those not being their first.
- A heart attack occurs every 34 seconds.
Even more frightening, heart disease is on the rise. Studies have suggested that by 2030, as much as 40% of the population in the United States will have some type of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). Costs associated with all forms of heart disease are expected to triple by 2030, topping out at over one trillion dollars.
What can we do to help ensure that we don’t reach these levels of heart disease? …
