Preventable Heart Disease in Young

Preventable Heart Disease in Young Adults

Between 1980 and 2002, death rates from coronary heart disease fell significantly for American adults 35 and older. However, during the last half of that period, the rates of decline differed substantially between young adults between 35 and 54 and their older counterparts. According to studies presented in a report in the November 27th issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology co-authored by Dr. Earl S. Ford, a medical officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, coronary disease in men between 35 and 54 declined, on average, 6.2% per year in the 1980s but only by 2.3% in the 1990s, after which the rate of decline continued to drop even further, reaching an annual reduction rate of only 0.5% between 2000 and 2002 (Edelson, 2007).

Statistics for women in the same age groups were similar. Meanwhile, the rate of coronary heart disease has continued to decline steadily for all adults above the age of 54.

Medical authorities suggest that the dramatic differences likely reflect lifestyle differences, which they attribute to the failure of young adults to incorporate the behavioral changes that medical researchers have strongly advocated for years. In comparison, older adults tend to follow medical advice much more closely, accounting for steadily decreasing rates of coronary heart disease.

Specifically, younger adults have not changed their dietary habits or significantly reduced their smoking, which have long been identified as some of the most direct preventable causes of major illness, including, but hardly limited to coronary heart disease (Edelson, 2007). Unless younger adults begin to heed the warnings and advice of medical researchers, they will continue to suffer higher incidences of preventable medical consequences (including earlier death from disease) than necessary as they age.

Thesis Statement:

The main risk factors for coronary heart disease have been identified ever since the 1980s. During the last half of the 20th century, medical researchers issued comprehensive suggestions designed to lower coronary heart disease rates by changing behaviors known to contribute to heart disease. Since 1990, coronary heart disease has continued to decline among older adults, and all but stopped declining among younger adults. Medical authorities suggest that all of us follow their advice pertaining to preventing heart disease by changing our dietary habits, lowering our contributing risk factors for diabetes, and that we exercise more and stop smoking to the extent we wish to remain healthier and free of coronary heart disease as we continue to age.

Hereditary Factors:

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the unavoidable risk factors for coronary heart disease include advanced age, family history of heart disease and related ailments like high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as race, because certain racial backgrounds are known to suffer more from heart disease, even after considering other statistical factors. African-Americans, for example, tend to suffer from more severe high blood pressure than Caucasians, and other racial groups like Mexicans,

Native American Indians, Hawaiians, (among others), have higher incidences of contributing factors such as obesity and diabetes (AHA, 2007). Precisely because genetic predisposition and heredity are not under our control, medical authorities stress the importance of minimizing those risk factors for heart disease that are linked to behavioral choices, and therefore, under our control.

Smoking:

The evidence linking tobacco smoking to disease is overwhelming. According to the AHA, (2007) cigarette smokers are 2 to 4 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than nonsmokers, and among patients known to have coronary heart disease, smoking doubles their risk of sudden death from cardiac failure compared to nonsmokers with the disease.

Whereas older adults have, as a group, heeded the warnings from their doctors to stop smoking to lower their risk of diseases, including coronary heart disease, younger adults have resisted that advice, According to a study reported earlier this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, young adults who smoke, the ages between 18 and 25 are "critical" in terms of whether or not current smokers quit or continue smoking for the rest of their lives (MNT, 2007). That study examned the social components and peer pressure-related issues pertaining to smoking behavior in young adults and determiined that young adults are strongly influenced by social cues, such as the predominance of representatives of their age group depicted as smokers in the media, especially in movies (MNT, 2007)

Obesity:

Like smoking, obesity has been identified by overwhelming evidence as a major contributing factor to coronary heart disease, as well as to other diseases (like diabetes and high blood pressure), some of them also constituting independent contributing factors in heart disease, irrespective of concurrent obesity issues (AHA, 2007). Obesity increases the amount of work required of the heart, raises blood pressure, lowers HDL cholesterol levels while increasing "bad" cholesterol and triglycerides, in addition to increasing the likelihood of developing diabetes (AHA, 2007).

According to numerous studies such as that published in 2003 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health, excess body fat significantly reduces life expectancy and specifically contributes to the development of heart disease. Most importantly, that study concluded that obesity represented a much more profound risk among young adults between 20 and 30 studied than among older adults, between 60 and 70 (Ham, 2003).

When combined with the latest evidence of the increasing American obesity epidemic, particularly in children, the connection between obesity and the rate of coronary heart disease in young adults becomes obvious. The Centers for Disease

Control (CDC) reports that 66% of Americans, including 17% of American children are clinically overwheight (Gibbs, 2007) and numerous studies suggest that being overweight as a child is one of the strongest predictive factors in adult obesity. To a large extent, this is a function of the widespread incorporation of fast food chains into contemporary

American culture in the last few decades of the 20th century (Gibbs, 2007).

Sedentary Lifestyles and Alcohol Consumption:

The American heart Association recommends an active lifestyle as part of behavioral changes to reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease. Regular moderately intense exercise reduces heart disease directly, as well as indirectly by reducing other specific diseases like poor circulation, hihg cholesterol, and diabetes, that are also significant contributing factors in coronary heart disease and sudden death by cardiac failure (AHA, 2007). Nevertheless, the International Health, Raquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) reports that, in 2007, 83% of American adults do not engage in any physical exercise on any given day (Gibbs, 2007) Anecdotal evidence suggests that sedentary lifestyles among young adults is also associated with alcohol consumption, partly related to the popularity of spectator sports and the social factors that link them to alohol consumption, as becomes obvious just from watching the prevalence of beer commercials targeting the same demographic of young adults whose images they portray (Gibbs, 2007).

Whereas moderate alcohol consumption has been tentatively linked to lowered risk of coronary heart disease, more than moderate alcohol consumption has been conclusively demonstrated to raise blood pressure, triglycerides, and cause heart failure and irregular heartbeat, all of which are strongly implicated in the development of heart disease, both in combination, as well as individually (AHA, 2007). In this regard, young adults who drink alcohol are more at risk from the relationship between alcohol consumption and heart disease because regular overindulgence and binge drinking are habits much more common to college-age drinkers and younger adults than to older adults, a smaller percentage of whose drinkers exhibit medically harmful consumption patterns. Older adults drink as well, but their drinking habits and consumption patterns are markedly different from those of contemporary young adults, which becomes much more predictive of long-term health concerns such as the development of coronary heart disease in light of the fact that drinking patterns established in young adulthood tend to dictate lifelong drinking patterns (Trevisan, 2007).