Often the most heartening news comes from health research. The past couple of weeks have revealed three worthy of note. All three involve prevention measures, two before a heart attack, and one after.
First, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 200,000 deaths from heart attacks can be avoided annually. The preventable deaths are concentrated in three areas.
The first area is age, where preventable deaths are concentrated in the 45-64 age cohort.
The second area is race, where African-American men are at the highest risk of preventable death, 143 out of 100,000.
Finally, the deaths are concentrated geographically in the South-Central Region.
Second, a study from Britain and India, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that a single pill or “polypill” with fixed doses of aspirin, anti-hypertensive, and cholesterol-lowering drugs was statistically more effective than offering separate prescriptions. While physicians point out that this approach limits flexibility, greater variation of dosage combinations in polypills is a promising approach.
Third, a study in JAMA Internal Medicine found that even after a heart attack, better diet, as measured with Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI 2010), resulted in lowered mortality.
The good news is that either before, or failing that, after a heart attack, the good practices of medication adherence and reduction of risk factors such as poor diet, can improve our survival as individuals. Furthermore, we can move the needle in a better direction by focusing our educational and interventional efforts on those under 65, African-American, residing in the South-Central United States.
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