Heart Deaths Increase In UK After Five Long Decades
For the first time in 50 years there has been a rise in the number of deaths from heart related and circulatory diseases in people below 75 years of age in UK. The increasing rates of obesity and diabetes are responsible for this trend to some extent as per the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
In 2014 the number of heart and circulatory conditions related deaths were reported to be 41,042 which rose to 42,384 in 2017. Millions of people in UK are at risk of heart and circulatory diseases because of high blood pressure and heart disease have been the major cause of deaths in UK. There are other risk factors as well like obesity, cholesterol, diabetes, smoking and even family history. According to reports more than 14 million people are having high blood pressure and about 5 million of them are unaware of this as they have not been diagnosed yet. Also about 15 million adults are obese in the UK. The last five years has seen an 18% rise in the number of people suffering from diabetes.
UK has made many effective actions in preventing and treating heart diseases, by providing better treatments, making people quit smoking and also new and improved treatments. According to BHF, the present scenario is a result of the increasing population combined with the slow pace of death rate improvement. Between the year 2007-2012, the premature death rates due to circulatory and heart diseases dropped by 25% however there was only a 9% drop in the rates between 2012-2017.
The chief executive at BHF, Simon Gillespie said that great progress had been made by UK in reducing the number of death rates due to stroke or heart attack. However the present situation is showing a reversal and they are very concerned about this. The number of people dying before the age of 65 or 75 due to heart diseases or circulatory diseases is increasing each year. He said that there was a need to work together with the government, medical research community and the NHS, to make more research investment and speed up the approaches for the diagnosis and thereby save the lives of millions of people who are at the risk of a stroke or heart attack.
