China’s cardiovascular death rate surpasses US and UK’s
Cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death worldwide. Throughout history, the US and the UK have lead developed countries in cardiovascular death percentages, but as we move into present time the percentages of the US and UK have dipped while China has flared up. This is due to their adaptation of more wester traditions, from activities to eating habits. In this interview with doctor Juan Pablo Zambrano, head of cardiology at Jackson Health Center, he discusses data relating to cardiovascular death rates and why they fluctuate. As well as covers why some places have such high percentages and how countries can lower their percentages.
TRANSCRIPT:
Juan Zambrano :
Hello, my name is Juan Pablo Zambrano. I’m the director of Cardiovascular Medicine at Jackson South Medical Center.
So the first question is, if you could tell us a little bit about why cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death?
Juan Zambrano :
Well, it has multiple components, despite the fact that we have in the first world continue to improve him in prevention, and trying to tackle risk factors, which in combination lead to the increase in cardiovascular disease, still, there are developing countries who are going through the process of industrialization, and eating a slightly different than what we used to lead on having to go to different stressors and infections. And that causes that the global number of cardiovascular disease still is the leading cause of death.
All right, and this is a two part question. So in the graph, we can see that the beginning, the leading, developed countries that were struggling with cardiovascular disease deaths, were the United States and the United Kingdom. But now China has overtaken Can you speak a little bit on that as well as what they could do to hopefully get this number down?
Juan Zambrano:
Well, there is a an awareness that was raised by multiple epidemiologic studies in different locations of America. In the United States, the framing and a study was the one that really uncover the risk factors. And by understanding risk factors, such as hypertension, or hypercholesterolemia, or diabetes, we were able to be more aggressive. And of course, the diet that can lead to that kind of problem, such as high fat, red meat, diet, and also high in carbohydrates, was in a way educated to the populations as time passed. And that translated into being able to decrease the incidence of cardiovascular events by the control of the risk factors that were identified by disobedient follow up studies. As I mentioned, however, in other countries, even though the process of technological development continue, in fortunately, they also acquire some of the lifestyles and diet that we have been working to modify and improve. And these change in diet and the process of being induced realize as well cause them to be under higher stress exposed to a not as healthy of a diet and increasing the obesity and the consequence, hypertension and diabetes that could lead to an increase in cardiovascular events. Now, what can we do? I think it’s a it’s a process of education, that they are also learning from, as you can see, the curves start to plateau, as they started to go in, ascending, you know, lean, now they’re plateauing. And I think they’re just also understanding medicine is becoming more globalized. So the, the institution such as the American College of Cardiology, now has also a division in Asia. And they are able to also learn from the same sort of data that we’ve learned. So global mediseen Also share those benefits of understanding where is that we’re in trouble? What is that we have to do to get better, and that is going to sustain passes caused those curves to start coming down to the level that the United States and Canada have been able to do.
Okay, and aside from these, the most developed countries, there are some outliers. For example, a lot of countries in Eastern Europe tend to deal with a lot higher cardiovascular diseases. For example, you can Bulgaria have been struggling to get it down with their cardiovascular death rate being around 64% 63%. Is this due to just the state of the healthcare system over there, or is there other factors that play?
Juan Zambrano:
I think the healthcare system does play a role there, you know, and the the ability to offer, you know, services of not just education, but also supplies medications for hypertension, for diabetes, and for cholesterol, but the diet might play a role in countries where the where the weather is maybe slightly in the cold the spectrum may lead to an increase in the intake of fatty type of food. And there is also maybe a genetic component that we have seen in Eastern Europe, sometimes that may play a role in Asia as well, that may play a role, you know, so, there is some populations in India, and we said that we see that also in areas where Indian population is more common, like in the Caribbean, and so, this genetic components, proposed dietary components plus health system, you know, deficiencies may be the cause for for these increase, or very high easiness of cardiovascular disease and that.
Okay, and then final question. So what could what would you say around the world could be done, individually, and maybe from a healthcare perspective to lower these percentages? And at what age? Should one really start worrying about it? Does it vary from person to person?
Juan Zambrano:
I think that the process of awareness and education is extremely important. So, for example, when I grew up, these knowledge was not as common and not as generalized that it is. Now. In the other hand, at your age, and with your generation, you already understand why he’s to eat their food, high in cholesterol, fatty food, access of carbohydrates. So so the health that is transmitted through habits or lifestyle and education, the importance of exercise, the importance of maintaining a good weight. So all those things will translate in terms of avoiding or preventing the development of certain chronic conditions, such as hypertension, with excess salt intake, or diabetes mellitus, with excess carbohydrate intake, along with weight gain and easily resistance. So I think that education is going to be crucial. I think the process of globalization that affects, you know, is clearly seen in our economy is also something that comes along with the health. And I think that being able to offer the resources for the patients to understand why the study causes a problem, and how easy could be to fix or find a solution by trying to eat well and stay active and exercise and maintaining a decent weight. stayed away from cigarettes, and those campaigns in general, will have a significant impact in our country and in many other countries around the world.
