HEART/CARDIOVASCULAR STATISTICS

(source:  American Heart Association www.americanheart.org)

• As many as 99.5 million American adults have high cholesterol levels
• 1997 estimates revealed 59.7 million Americans have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease
• 41.2% of all deaths in 1997 were due to cardiovascular disease (1 in 6 were younger than 65)
• Coronary heart disease is the single leading cause of death in America today  (466,101 deaths in 1997)
• 12.2. million people alive today have a history of heart attack, chest pain, or both. . . of these, half are women
• One in four US adults have high blood pressure and of those, one in three don't even know they have it

(source:  American Heart Association – www.americanheart.org)

• Did you know your body actually makes its own cholesterol?
• Did you know your body actually needs cholesterol?
• Did you know that many risk factors for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke can be changed and/or controlled?
• Did you know secondhand smoke has been found to lower the “good” (HDL) cholesterol by 10% in children with abnormal levels of cholesterol?
• Did you know one in four US adults have high blood pressure?  Of those, one in three don’t even know they have it.
• Did you know that as you grow older, your arteries will harden and become less elastic? 
• Did you know high blood pressure speeds up this process?
• Did you know people with uncontrolled high blood pressure are:

                    3 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease?
                    6 times more likely to develop congestive heart failure?
                    7 times more likely to have a stroke?