Nearly half of US adults have heart disease, study finds | Life

DALLAS, Feb. 1 – Nearly half of American adults have heart disease, a significant increase over previous years, largely because of an expanded definition of high blood pressure, announced yesterday. American Heart Association.

The report in the newspaper circulation found that 121.5 million adults in the United States in 2016 "have a type of cardiovascular disease."

By definition, cardiovascular diseases include coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and hypertension.

In 2017, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology have updated the definition of high blood pressure in the form of a reading of 130/80 mm Hg. Before, it was 140/90 mm Hg.

If we excluded high blood pressure from new statistics, only 9% of US adults (24.3 million in 2016) would be clbadified in serious cardiovascular disease.

"As one of the most common and most dangerous risk factors for heart disease and stroke, this hypertensive high blood pressure can not be discounted from the equation of our disease control. Cardiovascular, "said Ivor Benjamin, volunteer chair of the American Heart Association and director of the cardiovascular center at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

"Research has shown that the elimination of high blood pressure could have a greater impact on cardiovascular disease deaths than the elimination of all other risk factors in women and all but one. Smoking in men. "

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, killing 17.6 million people in 2016.

The global toll has declined slightly compared to 2015, when 17.9 million people lost their lives due to heart disease.

In the United States, the numbers go in the opposite direction.

"After decades of steady decline in the United States, the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease is increasing (840,678 deaths in 2016, compared to 836,546 in 2015)," the report says.

About 80% of cardiovascular disease can be prevented through healthy lifestyles such as diet, exercise, maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking; and controlling hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol, said the AHA. – AFP-Relaxnews