WRITTEN BY Dr. Nancy A. Palermo,
Thrive Personalized Healthcare and Wellness
Heart Disease:
F
Widening Our Lens to Fight a Deadly Killer
February was Heart Health month.
While we all donned red and vowed to
fight the number one killer of Ameri-
cans, it’s evident that one month of
awareness is not nearly enough to
alter the magnitude of this disease.
The numbers are dismal. In 2018,
over 800,000 Americans died of heart
disease or its related co-morbidities,
accounting for one in three of all deaths.
Despite spending over $300 billion to
“fight and treat” heart disease, we have
made no progress—and it appears that
the numbers are increasing. In 2015,
only three years prior, there were a little
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over 600,000 deaths, accounting for one
in four deaths.
Clearly, we are doing something
wrong. Spending more is not feasible.
Increased expenditures have not low-
ered death rates. In fact, the numbers
reveal that spending has focused on
prolonging the lives of patients with
heart disease, not preventing or revers-
ing it. Corporations have profited the
most. Pharmaceutical sales of Lipi-
tor, the number one statin in the US,
have exceeded $130 billion since its
introduction in the 1990s. Hospitals