Healthy hearts: Mortality rates are ahead of 2010 goals

by Thor on Jan. 23rd, 2008
in Human Organism

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Working better and better: Statistically, our hearts are getting better and better. The rate of heart-related deaths is dropping faster than goals set by by national health organizations.
Courtesy wikipediaHere’s something to strengthen your heart in advance of Valentine’s Day. Nationally, our rates for heart attack and stroke deaths have dropped faster than the pace national health organizations hope we’ll be at in 2010.

Over the period from 1999 to 2005, heart disease deaths dropped 25.8 percent while stroke deaths dropped 24.4 percent. That means that 160,000 people are still alive today who statistically would have likely died from heart and circulation trouble in the past year. If those rates continue, we’ll have an extra 240,000 people living a year from now who in past years would have died from heart ailments.

However, while our hearts are getting healthier epidemics continue on the diabetes and obesity fronts. And health problems associated with those factors could offset the decreased deaths from heart troubles.

The National Center for Health Statistics released the analysis of these health findings, but didn’t issue any causes for the changing mortality rates. So I put it to you, why are people having better heart health? Better diets? Decreased smoking? More exercise? Share your thoughts here with Science Buzz readers.

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