Heart Disease by the Numbers

It's fun to associate hearts with romance, but researchers recommend we focus on the all-important organ.

First, the frightening facts: Mortality data shows that cardiovascular disease is the underlying cause of death accounting for 1 out of every 3 deaths in 2007. Cardiovascular disease kills more each year than cancer, accidents and chronic lower respiratory disease combined.

Ways to Reduce Risk:
• Lay off the salt shaker. Excess sodium intake is a leading risk factor for high blood pressure, and only 9.6 percent of U.S. adults meet the recommended target of daily dietary sodium intake (no more than 2,300 mg. per day).
• Make friends with a fisherman. According to the first population-based study among women of childbearing age, women who seldom or never eat fish may be increasing their cardiovascular risk by 50 percent or more.
• Make like you live in the Med. Among individuals 70-90 years of age, adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet plus greater physical activity is associated with 65-73 percent lower rates of all-cause mortality, as well as lower mortality rates from heart disease.
• Scrap the cigs. Within 5 years of smoking cessation, your risk of having a heart attack falls to about half that of a smoker, among other big benefits.
• Make fitness a must. Researchers recently found that weight is not as important as fitness in reducing death rates due to cardiovascular disease and other causes. Physical fitness is linked to lower death risks even after controlling for BMI.

–Natalie Kaar

Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2011 update: A report from the American Heart Association; www.healthcentral.com; www.mayoclinic.com; www.newsroom.heart.org

Colloquially Speaking…

WEB-MD-ICATING [WEB MED-I-KEYT-ING]

v.t., the tendency to use the vastness of the Internet to pre-diagnose, often incorrectly, one's medical condition; can also lead to anxiety as one extrapolates the ordinary symptoms of a common cold to be something far more sinister like a rare, incurable disease

You Gotta Love The 'Interwebs': A recent keyword search on the public WebMD website for "Northern Virginia" yielded 10 results, including the first listed entry, a first-person advice column by then-University of Virginia fourth-year (and Oakton HS alum) Gracie Terzian about tips for managing life with asthma. Terzian, who played the title role in the UVA Drama Department's version of "Evita", has quite the budding acting career ahead of her. Now living in New York, she is pursuing dramatic arts in many forms in the Big Apple.

—David Gignilliat

Tags: disease, health, Heart, heart disease, Numbers, Physical fitness, romance, working ou