Nearly Half of Americans Have Some Form of Heart Disease

About 48% of adults in the U.S. have some type of heart or blood vessel disease, according to a new annual report from the American Heart Association published in the journal Circulation. The finding, based on data collected from 2016, means that almost half of Americans have had a heart attack, stroke, angina, abnormal heart rhythms, or narrowing of the arteries. The new report also shows that deaths from heart disease, after declining in recent years, rose from 2015 to 2016, from 836,546 to 840,678. Dr. Mariell Jessup, chief science and medical officer at the American Heart Association, said much of the increase in the prevalence of heart disease may be attributed to the stricter guidelines defining high blood pressure, which the group enforced in 2017 along with the American College of Cardiology. Hypertension is now defined as readings of 130/80mm Hg or higher, when previously it had been set at 140/90mm Hg. The researchers applied the new guidelines to the 2016 data and modeled prevalence rates. Those models, says Jessup, have revealed that many more Americans are at risk of heart disease, since hypertension is an important risk factor for heart attack and stroke. “My view is that from an insurance standpoint, you may as well say that people with hypertension have heart attacks, because hypertension can lead to heart attacks, stroke and heart failure,” she says. Jessup says it’s discouraging that heart disease remains the leading killer of Americans, ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Heart Disease Source Type: news