Leading Causes of Death

Annually there are 2,515,458 deaths registered in the US each year with the leading top 10 causes accounting for nearly 75% of all deaths. The top three causes of death according to the Center for Disease Control in 2014 are

 

The leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States is heart disease as you can see from the chart above. It causes more than 600, 000 deaths per year, almost 24% of all deaths. More than half of those are men.

Causes of Death – Change LifeStyle

The main cause of heart disease is plaque buildup in the walls of the arteries. As the plaque builds up, arteries become narrower causing a risk of heart attack and stroke.

Heart disease can be prevented and reduced by 20 to 40 percent according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

You can help prevent heart disease by making lifestyle changes that can improve your risk for heart disease, such as:

• Quit smoking
• Control other health conditions, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes
• Exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week
• Eat a diet that’s low in salt and saturated fat
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Reduce and manage stress
• Practice good hygiene
  (From the Mayo clinic)

Heart Attack Symptoms

In addition to making efforts to prevent a heart attack, knowing the warning signs and symptoms of a heart attack can prevent death. Major warning signs and symptoms of heart attack that can be present before an attack are:

• Chest pain or discomfort
• Pain or discomfort in the upper body, arms, neck, jaw or upper stomach
• Breathlessness
• Nausea
• Lightheadedness
• Cold sweats

Women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.

Anyone having any of these signs should not wait more than five minutes before calling for help. They should call 9-1-1 and get to a hospital right away.

There are many resources on the internet to help reduce the risk of heart attacks and to find information about symptoms to take care of. Setting goals and objectives for your heart health can be helped by the information.

CPR is Not Going to Save You – TV vs Reality

A study by Susan Diem and others of how CPR is portrayed on TV found that it was successful in 75%. In reality, a 2010 study of more than 95,000 cases of CPR found that only 8% of patients survived for more than one month. Of these, only about 3% could lead a mostly normal life.