Tips & traps for the worried well: heart care

“The heart has beaten three billion times in the life of a man of 80. There are 300,000 heart attacks in the UK annually. Each year 130,000 men die from Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and a further 70,000 from a stroke, which is the most frequent cause of disability. Respectively they are the first and third biggest killers of men, cancer taking second place. We are living longer on average and the rate of death from cardiovascular disease is falling. But how much longer can it go on falling before it rises again, as the long term effects of the obesity epidemic take hold, replacing cigarette smoking as the primary target for change in lifestyle on a national scale? People are exercising more – in some cases – and eating better – in some cases – but at the other end of the scale growing numbers are eating less well and exercising less. The lack of adequate exercise appears to be the greater of the two problems.
   Research has highlighted the fact that those who are fit despite being overweight or obese are less likely to suffer from a cardiovascular event than those who are the correct weight but are not fit. Those who are underweight and not fit are at even greater risk, though this might seem to fly in the face of alternative research that suggests that those who live longest are below average weight. And it begs the question if you accept the first of these propositions: is being underweight a cause of illness and death, or is illness the reason for being underweight?...”

The article continues to discuss heart care further, including risk factors and what to do. It is reproduced with kind permission from 1000 TIPS & TRAPS FOR THE WORRIED WELL by Colin Wilson PhD, published by Osculum Press.