Skip to main content

The Diseases That Are Increasingly Killing Americans: Brainstorm Health

Good afternoon, readers.

A new study in the journal JAMA helps break out exactly what is, and isn’t, killing Americans.

Heart disease is far and away the number one killer in this country (some 1 in 4 deaths are associated with it). But cancer, lung diseases, and metabolic disorders such as diabetes aren’t far behind.

Here is the good news-bad news situation, according to the report: “While cardiovascular disease (CVD) death rates declined by approximately 36% from 2000 to 2014, CVD remains the leading cause of mortality among US adults. Annual declines in CVD mortality slowed between 2011 and 2014 (0.7% fewer CVD deaths per year), and it appears unlikely that strategic goals from the American Heart Association (20% reduction by 2020) will be achieved.”

Put into simpler terms, diabetes and high blood pressure are still killing millions of people. And communities of color continue to be disproportionately affected by this reality.

Read on for the day’s news.

Sy Mukherjee, @the_sy_guy, sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com



from Fortune https://ift.tt/32apAqB
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Photo finish: Crashing sales force Olympus to sell iconic camera business

Sometimes, the vicissitudes of capitalism force companies to exit the businesses for which they’re best known. Olympus, once a leading light in the photography industry, is now joining that list. On Wednesday, the company said it planned to quit its 84-year-old camera business. The imaging giant, known for its once-pervasive digital cameras, agreed to sell off the declining unit by year’s end. Japan Industrial Partners, a private equity firm best known for buying Sony’s struggling Vaio computer line in 2014, agreed to purchase the business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. A glance at Olympus’s financial statements provides all the rationale for the divestiture; as at rival manufacturers, camera sales have plummeted over the past decade. For the fiscal year ended March 31, Olympus’s camera unit declined 10% versus the year prior to  ¥43.6 billion, or $407 million. The unit’s sales have collapsed by three-quarters from a decade ago, when the company brought in ¥175 bill...
Post a Comment
Read more

WHO says common steroids can slash death risk for the sickest coronavirus patients

Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism,  subscribe today . An old drug can learn new tricks during the coronavirus pandemic. That’s the main takeaway from the World Health Organization (WHO) in a new analysis of corticosteroids—a class of drugs which have existed for dozens of years and are far cheaper than new, experimental COVID treatments in development—suggesting that drugs like dexamethasone can slash the chances of COVID-19 related deaths by as much as 35% in the sickest patients. The WHO analysis of coronavirus drugs encompassed seven separate studies. And while an analysis of this sort—what’s called a “meta-analysis”—isn’t as rigorous as other types of trials like a randomized controlled study, the data are compelling. Corticosteroids have a very different action mechanism from many of the other coronavirus drugs in development. COVID-19 is a peculiar disease. Some who have been infected ma...
Post a Comment
Read more