A global effort to reduce population blood pressure, cut sodium intake and eliminate “trans” fats from the diet could dramatically decrease the incidence of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease in 25 years, according to a new or study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Focusing our resources on the combination of these three interventions can have a potential
huge impact on cardiovascular health by 2040
The paper’s lead author, Goodarz Danaei, professor of Global Health at Harvard Chan School, said.
In the study, published last June in the journal “Circulation,” researchers used global data from multiple World Health Organization (WHO) studies and estimates to calculate how these strategies would impact.
In particular, they found that increasing the treatment of high blood pressure (hypertension) to 70% of the world’s population could extend the lives of 39.4 million people. Meanwhile, reducing sodium intake by 30% could prevent another 40 million deaths and could help lower blood pressure, one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The elimination of “trans” fats, meanwhile, would prevent the death of 14.8 million premature deaths. Estimates by these researchers indicate that more than half of all deaths that could be delayed, and two-thirds of deaths delayed before age 70, correspond to the male population, which currently has the highest numbers of deaths to cause of noncommunicable diseases worldwide.
The authors of the paper stated that reducing premature deaths linked to cardiovascular disease would require a variety of public programs and policies. An important strategy, they noted, would be to increase the use of medications for high blood pressure, many of the
which are safe and accessible. The researchers also recognized that amplifying these interventions would be a major challenge, which would involve countries allocating additional resources to increase the capacity and quality of the health system. But they added that previous analyses have shown that these interventions are achievable and economically accessible.
These are realistic goals that have proven to be achievable on smaller scales
He stated Danaei, who concluded:
We need a commitment to extend these kinds of programs so that we can reach the goal at the global level
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