"The Ronan Report" provides insight about the activities at the Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland, Maryland, and about the changes taking place in healthcare today from a CEO's perspective.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Risk of Cardiac Death

I recently read an article in MedPage Today entitled "Risk of Cardiac Death Pretty Much Set by 55." This article means a great deal to me as my father died of congestive heart failure at age 62.  According to the article, if you have a clean bill of cardiovascular health by age 55, as a male your risk of death from heart disease is only 4.7% and 6.4% for women.  A clean bill of health would include not having any of the risk factors, which include: smoking, diabetes, treated or untreated high cholesterol or treated or untreated hypertension.  So far, I have none of these risk factors and I have surpassed 55.  Based on family history; father's death at an early age; paternal grandfather's death at 64; father's adult onset diabetes and his high BP, high cholesterol, high stress job and two-pack-a-day smoking habit for 36 years, now you can understand my relief.  I am not clearly out of the woods, but I am off to a good start.  Hopefully, you are faring just as well.

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