Heart Disease Deaths Spiked During COVID
By
Marlene Busko
WebMD Health News
Nov. 29, 2022 – Deaths from heart disease and stroke among adults living in the United States have been on the decline since 2010. But the COVID-19 pandemic reversed that downward trend in 2020, new research shows.
It was as if COVID had wiped out 5 years of progress, pushing rates back to levels seen in 2015, the researchers say.
Non-Hispanic Black people and those who were younger than 75 were affected more than others, with the pandemic reversing 10 years of progress in those groups.
Rebecca C. Woodruff, PhD,
presented these study findings
at the American Heart Association 2022 Scientific Sessions.
The rate of death from heart disease had been falling for decades in the United States due to better detection of risk factors, such as high blood pressure, and better treatments, such as statins for cholesterol, she said.
The decrease in deaths from heart disease from 1900 to 1999 “has been recognized as a top public health achievement of the twentieth century,” said Woodruff, who is an epidemiologist for the CDC.
The reversal of this positive trend shows that it is important that people “work with a health care provider to prevent and manage existing heart disease, even in challenging conditions like the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.
Brunilda Nazario, MD: It's a known fact that heart disease can be treated or prevented. Most causes of heart disease can be reversed. Most causes of heart disease are caused by something called atherosclerosis-- or plaque buildup within the arteries.
Brunilda Nazario, MD (Continued): Heart failure is one type of heart disease, and it's typically the inability of the heart to pump the way that it should. And there's a lot of causes for heart failure. The first one, or the most common one, is a heart attack. Hypertension is another very common cause of congestive heart failure-- or heart failure. And then the third one that's very common is a faulty heart valve.
Brunilda Nazario, MD (Continued): There are things that you can do. The first thing that we always recommend is know what numbers are. So know what your cholesterol is. Know what your blood pressure is.
Brunilda Nazario, MD (Continued): If you have some condition that puts you at risk for heart disease, such as diabetes, take the steps that you need to take to control your blood sugar. That will reduce your risk of heart disease. And if you're overweight, whether you smoke, or whether you're inactive-- that's a good opportunity to work with your physician, your health care provider, to help you take the steps that you need to reduce your risks.
Brunilda Nazario, MD (Continued): You may have the disease, but certainly there are things that you can do to treat-- even prevent-- it. And in some cases, you can reverse the condition as well.
Woodruff advised that “everyone can improve and maintain their cardiovascular health and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by following the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 – eating better, being more active, quitting tobacco, getting healthy sleep, managing weight, controlling cholesterol, managing blood sugar, and managing blood pressure.”
“COVID-19 vaccines can help everyone, especially those with underlying heart disease or other health conditions, and protect people from severe COVID-19,” she stressed.
Andrew J. Einstein, MD, PhD, from Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, who was not involved with this research, says the results show “very disturbing changes” to the decline in deaths from heart disease over the past decade.
The study findings underscore that “as a society, we need to take efforts to ensure that all people are engaged in the health care system, with one aim being improving heart health outcomes, which worsened significantly in 2020,” he says.
Source: https://www.webmd.com/news/20221129/heart-disease-deaths-spiked-covid?src=RSS_PUBLIC