Liberty University

Master of Public Health

Fall
08
Health 634

Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention

PATRICIA JORDAN

September 17, 2017

Words: 1631
Introduction
Heart disease and stroke has been, and continues to be, a major public health concern.
The burden that is causes and the prolific nature of the disease affects many Americans. Heart
disease is one the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. It is estimated that
in the year 2006, 426,264 deaths were caused by cardiovascular disease.10 Approximately 2300
Americans die each day from the disease which translates into and astounding average of 1 death
every 38 seconds in the United States. It was estimated that in the year 2010, 785,000 people
would develop a new coronary attack, and nearly 470,000 would suffer from a recurrent attack.10
It is estimated that each year 795000 Americans experience a new or recurrent stroke. Data from
2006 indicates that approximately 1 in 18 deaths was due to a stroke.10
Nearly a decade later in 2015 the rate of deaths and disease associated with heart disease
and stroke did not improve. Per the CDC, in 2015 in the United States more than 50% of all
heart disease deaths were men, specific coronary heart disease killed about 366,000 people, and
the financial cost associated with the full spectrum of treatment of heart disease was about 200
billion dollars.3

Body of Evidence
Heart disease and stroke are preventable diseases that can be avoided by people making
personal choices to lead a healthy life style that includes proper and smart diets, as well as
consistent and effective exercise. Some of the risk factors that lead to the incidence of the
disease include people with high blood pressure, nonadherence to medication to control blood
pressure, obesity, pre-diabetes, diabetes, dyslipidemia, chronic kidney disease, lack of physical
activity, high cholesterol, smoking, and physical inactivity.2 Even though there are popular
health and fitness crazes today, the American people suffer from very high rates of inactivity,
very high rates of obesity, very high rates of poor diet choices, and high rates of alcohol and
tobacco consumption. These personal choices add significant risk and the potential of fatal heart
disease is rampant and has been for years. In terms of the most significant risk factors, the CDC
name high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, and cigarette smoking as the key heart disease
risk factors; of which nearly 50% of Americans have at least one of these factors.3
There is a need to make to develop a program that would promote prevention of heart
disease and stroke. Educating people on how to lead healthy life styles for the purpose of
decreasing their risk of developing the disease is important. There are multiple ways by which
the promotion of the plan can be broadcasted. Developing messages and material to promote
awareness could be in every media outlet and posted in all public places. Health care
professionals can also work with local civic leaders to persuade patients at risk to make
increasingly informed decisions regarding their life style choices to assist change. Healthcare
professionals and civic leaders could also consider public venues, organizations, restaurants, and
schools and make sure their reported ingredients and food specific information is accurate and
transparent. The overall theme is to help people transform their understanding on the subject of
health, help them realize that death is the only destination if they continue down an unhealthy
road, and to broadcast support outlets for people who might be motivated to make changes but
just dont have the knowledge base to even begin.
Healthy eating is vital in the prevention of heart disease and stroke. The article
Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets indicates the best diets that would be
beneficial to lead a healthy life; healthy eating may be best achieved with a plant-based diet,
which we define as a regimen that encourages whole, plant-based foods and discourages meats,
dairy products, and eggs as well as all refined and processed foods8 The proof of this advice has
been proven with a tremendous amount of research because science and experience say that
some foods are much healthier than others. Healthy diets can drastically lower the cholesterol
level, decrease blood pressure, decrease HbA1C levels, can prevent obesity, and could minimize
the amount and type of medicine that is prescribed to treat other diseases associated with heart
disease.
The article Comparative effectiveness of exercise and drug interventions on mortality
outcomes: met epidemiological study, emphasizes the importance of exercise in the fight against
heart disease and stroke. The authors indicate that physical activity is potentially as effective as
many drug interventions.5 In order to have overall cardiovascular health, the American Heart
Association prepared some physical activity recommendations for adults that consisted of
engaging in at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week or 75 minutes of moderate
exercise combine with vigorous activity. There are also significant benefits by dividing time into
two or segments of 10 to 15 minutes a day.1 An average of 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous
aerobic activity 3 to 4 times per week would significantly lower blood pressure and cholesterol.1
Due to scientific progress and the increased understanding of human biological processes, there
is an abundance of physical fitness information available everywhere. From beginner to expert,
from young to old, there are physical fitness regimen for all.

Smoking greatly increases the risk of developing heart disease, according to Khan et al.4
The study indicates that the mean estimates that from all heart disease deaths among young
people associated with smoking in the United States between 1997 to 2006, 45,147 were due to
coronary heart disease.4 This study used National Health Survey respondents data from 1997 to
2004 to find how many deaths were linked to smoking ages 18 to 24. After controlling for age,
race, body mass index, history of hypertension and diabetes, and leisure time physical activity,
current smoking related CHD mortality HR was 14.6 [95 % confidence interval or CI, 3.364.9]
for females and 3.6 [95 % CI, 1.210.4] for males. The HR for all HD mortality was 3.1 [95 %
CI, 1.37.6] for females and 2.4 [95 % CI, 1.24.7] for males. The AF of smoking for CHD
deaths for female and male were 0.58 and 0.54 respectively. The AF of all HD mortality was 0.31
for male and 0.32 for female. The mean estimates of all HD deaths attributable to smoking
during 19972006 among this age group were 52,214, of which 45,147 were CHD deaths.4
Some studies show that alcohol consumption in moderation is beneficial for overall
health. The opposite is true that excess alcohol consumption can take a toll on the heart.3 The
findings provided in the article The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Alcohol Use and Abuse on
the Heart are that moderate alcohol intake increases the levels of HDL, decreasing the risk of
developing heart disease. Alcohol abuse in the long term has demonstrated to cause problems to
the heart muscle, decreased contractility, and stroke volume.9
Decreasing the incidence of heart disease and stroke is necessary and prevention policy
plays a vital role. This can be done be promoting, informing people on how to make heathy life
style choices. The article ScienceThe Cornerstone of Nutrition Policy, Promotion, and
Practice explains that dietetic practice must also evolve to ensure the application of the most
current science to support healthy eating and the prevention of disease.7 making policies that
support healthy eating is a great tool to prevent heart disease and stroke.
 Policies that assist intervention programs are necessary to help people change unhealthy
behaviors. The article Hearts, healthy communities: a rural community-based cardiovascular
disease prevention program is a good example of how to promote norms to live healthy life
styles through civic engagement, capacity building.6

Conclusion
With the sciences learning more about the way the world, the health profession has
evolved in leaps and bounds as it increasingly understands the nature of the human body and the
science behind improving yet. The CDC statistics are quite clear and straightforward as they
highlight heart disease and stroke as a consistent epidemic. The outcomes of all of the works
cited are on the relative same plane when it comes to their vantage point and the science behind
their conclusions. There are strong links between personal choice and the debilitating disease of
heart disease and the severity of a stroke. All experts agree that there are certain dietary choices
and lifestyle choices that can greatly reduce the chance for a person to suffer from heart disease
and stroke.
There are many media outlets that preach healthy exercise and a healthy life. For one,
media fitness crazes are probably more concerned with selling their product than they are with
improving the consumers health. Ironically, these products and theories are not even as efficient
as the most simplistic and natural methods. The key ingredients to reducing heart disease and
stroke are healthy diet, exercise, and wise lifestyle choices. To reiterate the statistics given by
the CDC, nearly 400,000 Americans die of these diseases every single year.10 That number is
astronomically extreme especially considering that there are such simple and effective prevention
measures it is a real conundrum why these death numbers in the United States remain high. The
science is conclusive, the evidence is clear, the preventative measures are doable by nearly
everyone, but still the problem remains. In a nation where the obesity rate is remarkably high,
where an increase of leisure time and social interaction potentially leads to poor lifestyle choices,
and in a nation, that can be more inactive than active, it is a daunting speculation as to what the
future of the United States and its citizens collective health holds. One thing is for certain, if
trends are not reversed and the accurate scientific recommendation heeded, many Americans will
find a less productive life face an uncertain future.
References

1. American Heart Association Recommendations for Physical Activity in Adults. American

Heart Association Recommendations for Physical Activity in Adults.
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/PhysicalActivity/FitnessBasics/American-
Heart-Association-Recommendations-for-Physical-Activity-in-
Adults_UCM_307976_Article.jsp#.Wb6dz3eGOCQ. Published July 27, 2016. Accessed
September 17, 2017.

2. Bhatt H, Safford M, Glasser S. Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors and Outcomes in the
Twenty-First Century: Findings from the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in
Stroke (REGARDS) Study. May 2015. https://link-springer-
com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/article/10.1007%2Fs11906-015-0541-5#enumeration. Accessed
September 16, 2017.

3. CDC. Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fs_heart_disease.htm.
Published August 23, 2017. Accessed September 17, 2017.

4. Khan RJ, Stewart CP, Davis SK, Harvey DJ, Leistikow BN. The risk and burden of smoking
related heart disease mortality among young people in the United States. Tobacco induced
diseases. 2015;13:16.

5. Naci H, Loannidis JP. Tuso P, Mohamed, Ha B, Bartolotto C. Nutritional Update for

Physicians: Plant-Based Diets. 2013:17-93. doi:10.7812/TPP/12-085. British Medical Journal.
October 2013:14. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/stable/43512560?pq-
origsite=summon&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. Accessed September 17, 2017.

6. Seguin RA, Eldridge G, Graham ML, Folta SC, Nelson ME, Strogatz D. Strong Hearts,
healthy communities: a rural community-based cardiovascular disease prevention program. BMC
public health. 2016;2015;16:86.

7. Tagtow A. Science-The Cornerstone of Nutrition Policy, Promotion, and Practice. Journal of

the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2016;116:1892.

8. Tuso P, Mohamed, Ha B, Bartolotto C. Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets.

2013:17-93. doi:10.7812/TPP/12-085.

9. Walker RK, Cousins VM, Umoh NA, et al. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Alcohol Use
and Abuse on the Heart. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 2013;37:1253-1260.

10. Writing Me, Lloyd-Jones D, Adams RJ, et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics--2010
update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20019324. Published February 23, 2010. Accessed
September 16, 2017.