Why we're losing the battle on cardiovascular disease and the "pill" we still aren't prescribing for it

The January/February 2023 AARP Bulletin featured a great cover story entitled "America’s War Against Heart Disease" by Sari Harrar.?This feature described the rise in heart disease in the 1940’s, interventions that were effective at “winning the war on heart disease” from the 1950’s through early 2000’s to present day where now unfortunately the return of a killer and crisis has effectively lowered life expectancy for the first time in decades. *

How the Killer Returned

Our bodies in the US first started to get out of balance?as early as the 1940’s when unhealthy living first started to rise during World War II. Smoking*, sitting at work more and eating sugary processed and fatty foods became the poison that led to a rapid rise in coronary artery disease.?In fact, between 1940-1948 heart disease in the US rose 20 percent. Harrar’s story outlined how fast action and increased research from then President Harry Truman and the signing of the National Heart Act?established a framework and plan to monitor and intervene on heart disease. The National Heart Institute was born (now the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute) and Truman also funded the famous, and longest running population study of heart disease, the Framingham Heart Study.?

During this six decade span between 1950 and 2009 America’s focused attack on heart disease led to a remarkable 69 percent reduction in deaths from heart attacks, heart failure and related disorders.?Research and funding support led to treatment breakthroughs with new?diagnostics, medications and surgical procedures credited for these improvements along with some early behavioral health change interventions. ?

*As a sidebar, even with this funding it was clear at the beginning we 'did not know what we did not know' back then about heart disease risks. In fact, I thought this point shared by Harrar was quite comical in illustrating this point.?

“When researchers began the study, so little was known about heart disease that their budget, ironically included money for office ashtrays” for the National Heart Act and Framingham Heart Study.

Why More Pills Aren't Helping Now

As I wrote in my book, Body in Balance heart disease, stroke and obesity rates have been back on the rise lately.?Pre-pandemic, the rate of increase in deaths for younger adults and those in midlife were climbing by almost 9 percent in those aged 45-64 between 2010-2020.

Post-pandemic, COVID has only ignited the heart disease resurgence.** In fact, in 2020 and 2021 alone, heart attack deaths increased up to 21 percent for those 45-64 years old and almost 18 percent for those 65 and older.

The Missing Pill: A New Mobility Plan is Needed

Are the increases in fatalities from heart disease and stroke simply side effects of the pandemic??With all the added stress that came with it, plus the political and economic unrest, and possibly more drinking, less sleep and unhealthy behaviors plus weight gain, is this what should be expected??

One could argue on the other side as well that the pandemic forced many to look at their mortality for the first time and take charge of their own lifestyle and health risk behaviors as a way of controlling what they could, and removing all the noise and political bullshit that took over every news outlet. Who took action, however, was it only the small percentage of Americans who were already fit, and looking to get fitter? Who's examining this important health data?

What role does inactivity play in all this?

More questions than answers remain.

Has the rapid decline in activity level for most Americans simply been due to COVID or are we collectively just getting lazier as a nation?

Data collected from the CDC's 2022 National Center for Health Statistics data brief showed a low number (24.2%) of American adults over 18 currently meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for both aerobic and muscle strengthening exercise.

Why are we still giving lip service to this over 75% of the population that are losing the immobility epidemic? There's no long term profitable drug to keep users on a mobility prescription to achieve health balance, so it will most likely remain underfunded and understudied.

We don’t know all the bottom line numbers the pandemic played on our unraveling cardiovascular and stroke risks, but how do we make meaningful changes to manage what we currenlty aren’t measuring?

Mobility

What will be our new mobility plan to counter these post pandemic increases? Who’s prescribing "the mobility pill" or "E-Pill" I describe in my book and Achieve Balance course to get us moving again safely to fight this battle on cardiovascular disease with a prescription that comes with the least amount of side effects if prescribed correctly.

"If exercise could be bottled it would be the #1 prescribed medicine in the world."-unknown

This fight will not be won with another miracle pill or cure, as loss of mobility and movement simply has too many negative side effects that can’t be managed with more drugs. It will be won with lifestyle prescription plans that include behavioral change management and health education coaching and intervention from movement and mobility professionals.

This leads me to beg the question to my fellow PTs as we try to establish ourselves as the referral source as the movement experts for prescribing exercise and mobility interventions throughout the lifespan:

Are we losing our identities as the preferred movement experts most capable of prescribing therapeutic exercise? Or, did we ever have this identity to lose??

-David Dansereau,MSPT-Author-Body in Balance

Again, how do we know if we aren't measuring long term mobility outcomes and who will help manage the mobility prescriptions to win this battle on heart disease and "GOYA" *** syndrome? PT's need a new value proposition in many ways to help us redefine our roles in health, wellness and disease prevention. Here's one good article on this topic.

Please weigh in on this heavy topic (pun intended) or join in on our next live discussion where we work on planning better ways to achieve lasting health balance . Module 3 date just released!

See SmartMovesPT for more course info and learn how we are raising the bar for particpants to know their mobility numbers as part of their healthy behavior change plan.

* The CDC report in 2022 lists rising rates from heart disease deaths as a major reason for this decline in life expectancy, while other news reports point to COVID and the opioid crisis for the decreasing lifespan trend.

**The AARP cover story cited a large 2022 study that found lingering heart risks a year after COVID infection.?They quoted Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Larisa Tereshchenko, M.D. who told the journal Science that "contracting COVID could emerge as the number one risk factor for future heart disease."?

*** I invite you to read my book or attend my Achieve Balance Course to learn about "GOYA" syndrome and how to restore a body to balance by prescribing the right dose of the exercise pill. Included in this recipe is a mix of the right rest, a way to measure progress and a few other simple nutrition and activity hacks to get you moving in the right direction.