Epidemic Of Obesity

Progress in decades in the U.S. in lowering cholesterol, blood pressure and snuff consumption stagnated over the increasing rate of obesity and heart diseases cause 400,000 deaths in the country this year, experts said on Monday.

A study by British scientists found that about half of those deaths could be prevented if people ate healthier foods and stop smoking.

Experts warned that there is no room for complacency when it comes to the risks to heart health.

Simon Capewell from the University of Liverpool said that recent trends in weight were “alarming”, with an estimated 1,500 million adults worldwide are overweight by 2015.

“Although the number of deaths from heart disease fell in the U.S. in the last four decades, now is leveling off among men and women,” she wrote in a study published in the weekly magazine of the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The reduction in total cholesterol in blood has been modest, blood pressure is rising among women and obesity and diabetes is increasing in both sexes,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »