Most heart disease deaths track diet, not destiny alone
Cardiovascular disease covers everything from angina and stroke to congenital defects and aneurysms. Roughly half of related deaths link to dietary risk factors, and researchers estimate up to ninety percent of cases could be prevented by changing habits and treating pressure, lipids, and diabetes early.
CVD means any disease of the heart or blood vessels: coronary artery disease, heart failure, hypertensive and rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, congenital and valvular disease, carditis, aortic aneurysms, peripheral artery disease, thromboembolic disease, venous thrombosis, and more. Mechanisms differ by condition. Coronary disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease share atherosclerosis, fed by high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, inactivity, obesity, high cholesterol, poor diet, excessive alcohol, and chronic stress, among other drivers.
Prevention centers on healthy eating, exercise, avoiding tobacco smoke, limiting alcohol, and treating high pressure, lipids, and diabetes. Antibiotics for strep throat help block rheumatic heart disease. CVD is the leading cause of death worldwide outside Africa. In 2015 it caused an estimated 17.9 million deaths (32.1 percent), up from 12.3 million (25.8 percent) in 1990. Age-specific death rates have risen in much of the developing world while falling in most developed countries since the 1970s.
Most cases strike older adults. In high-income countries mean age at first diagnosis is about seventy—seventy-three for women, sixty-eight for men. Average age of death from coronary disease is around eighty in developed settings versus about sixty-eight in developing ones. Compared with women of equal age, men face roughly fifty percent higher CVD risk and usually receive the diagnosis seven to ten years sooner. Vascular subtypes include peripheral arterial disease and cerebrovascular disease such as stroke; heart-centered forms include cardiomyopathy, hypertensive heart disease, heart failure, pulmonary heart disease, and rhythm disorders.
Source: Cardiovascular disease
