HHS HealthBeat (August 02, 2007)

Cutting our risk of heart disease

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

We’re less likely now to die of heart disease. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine says death rates have fallen by half between 1980 and 2000.

So we must be doing something right. And researcher Janet Croft of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who authored the study, has an idea what.

Croft says improved medical care, such as better treatment for heart attack, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, accounted for almost half of the improvement.  But she says improvements in our own health habits accounted for almost as much. So she says:

``We need to maintain a healthy weight, stop smoking, control levels of blood pressure and high cholesterol, and increase our physical activity.’’ (8 seconds)

And Croft warns that increasing obesity and diabetes could wipe out the gains.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

Last revised: August, 02 2007