Cardiovascular disease: early deaths in England at highest rate in more than a decade
GuardianJAN 22 2024
A new report from the American Heart Association (AHA) estimates that 61% of American adults will have some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by the year 2050.
The report also predicts that 45M Americans will have a CVD — if high blood pressure is excluded — or suffer a stroke by the middle of the century, up from 28M in 2020. CVDs include high blood pressure, heart failure, and arrhythmia.
The direct and indirect costs of CVD in the US by 2050 is estimated to be around $1.8T. Heart disease and stroke are the first and fifth leading causes of death in the US, respectively, with annual CVD deaths worldwide expected to top 1M.
At this very moment, we have a drug available that not only treats diabetes but greatly helps against all manner of cardiovascular diseases. Cultural discourse has obscured the reality that drugs like Ozempic are wildly effective and safe, and their widespread use could change the chronic disease landscape in this country. We need to expand access to these life-saving drugs before this coming CVD catastrophe.
Instead of resorting to pharmaceutical interventions, we need to go to the source of America's ailments. At the root of the CVD crisis is a low-quality food supply that encourages people to eat food that is bereft of nutritional value. If we start treating food as medicine — by taxing what's unhealthy and subsidizing what is healthy — we can finally get a grip on cardiovascular disease.