For the past 18 months, Texas & other US states have been reeling with the Covid-19 pandemic.
But do you know there’s a disease that kills more Texans than any other?
It’s the Heart Disease.
As reported in the latest CDC data, since 2017, 45,346 Texans have succumbed to heart disease. That’s 6% of total citizens die because of heart disease in the United States.
Last year, Coronavirus was the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.
Even though the numbers are staggering high, it’s way behind heart disease.
And the worst part is, over the years, the hospitalization charges related to heart disease have increased. Therefore adding more burden on the families who don’t have stable income channels.
According to a report by texasheart.org, over 80 million Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease. To make things worse, cardiovascular disease puts you on the list of immunocompromised individuals against the COVID-19.
Dr. Rishi k. Wadhera, a cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor at Harvard medical school says, “Although the direct toll of covid-19 has been devastating, many of us in the medical community have also worried about the indirect toll of the pandemic on patients with other medical conditions, like cardiovascular disease.”
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Biggest Causes of Heart Disease
According to Texas Health and Human Services,
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Smoking
- Diabetes
- Overweight and obesity
- Poor diet
- Lack of exercise
- Heavy drinking
Recommendation to Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease
- Eat healthy food. This includes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as food that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol.
- Regular exercise
- Avoid smoking and limit alcohol intake.
Lloyd-jones, epidemiologist, and chair of the department of preventive medicine at northwestern university Feinberg school of medicine in Chicago says,
“Our messages for preventing heart disease and stroke and their risk factors have never been more important.”
“Watch your diet, get up and move more, get the sleep your body needs, and please see your doctor make sure you’re managing any chronic conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes.”
“We’ll need to watch and address these trends as the full ramifications are yet to come.”
Recommended Read: Two Teachers Die of COVID-19, Texas Schools Shut Down
Promising Advancement – A 3-D Bio-Printed Blood Vessel
For the past 20 years, we haven’t seen any major drug advancements in the field of Cardiovascular Diseases.
However, thanks to some Texan minds, some promising news is on the horizon. A research team at Texas A&M has developed a 3-D bio-printed blood vessel.
It’s believed that this model will give experts a better understanding of what happens to a vessel when diagnosed with heart disease. Therefore, can provide better opportunities to be used as heart implants in the future.