With COVID 19 being a hot topic right now as being one of the biggest communicable

diseases the world has seen, it’s an important time to also look at a bigger killer that might strike
again. As of 2005, Cardiovascular disease (CVDs) has been the number one “leading cause of
death in the United States for the past 80 years “and has been on the World’s Health’s
Organizations (WHO) leading cause of death since before the 20th century. According to the
WHO “an estimated 17.9 million people died from CVDs in 2016,” and accounted for “31%” of
all global deaths.
Back in 2009, a group of researchers presented a study to the American Heart
Association meeting showing evidence dating the disease back to 1203 BCE in which 9 out of 16
mummies had evidence of heart disease. Since CVDs are a vast grouping of diseases that attack
the heart and amount of blood circulated in the body to major organs, it’s causes can be
simplified to poor diet, risk factors, physical inactivity, and genetics. With that being said, the
target range for the disease is not limited to no one set of people due to their sex, age, or
sometimes life choices. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the three leading
demographics at a higher risk for the disease are the elderly aged 65 and up, males, and African
Americans. All three have seen trends or are associated with having more severe high blood
pressure complications leading to disease.
With medical advances and studies over the decade's many operations and surgeries have
been practiced in combating death due to CVDs, but the seriousness of the disease varies from
person to person. CVDs symptoms and effects include mild chest pains, shortness of breath,
weakness, cardiac arrest, stroke, and death. With more cases each year in the United States the
amount in healthcare costs go up as well, an average annual of “one in every six U.S. healthcare
dollars is spent on cardiovascular disease.” A big factor playing into the amount spent on
healthcare regarding CVD is the body mass index (BMI) of peoples on the policy. With obesity
having a high correlation to CVD, healthcare providers use the BMI of individuals to account for
either raise or decrease in individual and company policy costs. This can be seen not in the
United States but globally too, a study conducted by the German Research Center for
Environmental Health the “Helmholtz Zentrum München” shows when eliminating/ preventing
obesity by setting individuals to a BMI of “29.9 kg/m2” a decrease of annual health care costs
went down “4%” and when setting individuals BMI to “24.9 kg/m2” an “8.7%” annual decrease
was seen.
The “silent killer” is the largest non-communicable disease the world has ever seen and
will most likely never be eradicated in my lifetime or possibly from the Earth ever, due to
lifestyle choices and genetics passed on from generation to generation. By changing to a healthy
diet, pursuing higher education, and medical advances within one’s lifetime, individuals can
prevent/ slow cardiovascular disease. Without the individual’s accountability of one’s self, we
can’t hope for the accountability of the world.
 References

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). (2017, May 17). Retrieved September 18, 2020, from
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cardiovascular-diseases-(cvds)

Heart Disease Was Common in Ancient Egypt, Too. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2020, from
https://columbiasurgery.org/news/2016/02/18/heart-disease-was-common-ancient-egypt-
too-0

Laxy, M., Stark, R., Peters, A., Hauner, H., Holle, R., & Teuner, C. (2017, August 30). The Non-
Linear Relationship between BMI and Health Care Costs and the Resulting Cost Fraction
Attributable to Obesity. Retrieved September 18, 2020, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5615521/

Prevalence of Heart Disease --- United States, 2005. (2015, February 16). Retrieved September
18, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5606a2.htm

Stinson, C. (2015, April 29). Heart Disease and Stroke Cost America Nearly $1 Billion a Day in
Medical Costs, Lost Productivity. Retrieved September 18, 2020, from
https://www.cdcfoundation.org/pr/2015/heart-disease-and-stroke-cost-america-nearly-1-
billion-day-medical-costs-lost-productivity

Understand Your Risks to Prevent a Heart Attack. (2016, June 30). Retrieved September 18,
2020, from https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-attack/understand-your-risks-to-
prevent-a-heart-attack