Sarah Boseley, health editor
Friday June 4, 2004
The number of people living with coronary heart disease in the UK is steadily rising on the back of soaring obesity rates and is estimated by the British Heart Foundation to have reached a record 2.7 million.
Every two minutes, someone suffers a heart attack in the UK, says the foundation, which launches an alarming compendium of heart disease statistics today.
Almost one in every eight people (12%) has been diagnosed with a disease of the heart or circulatory system.
The numbers diagnosed with heart disease are rising year on year, and although treatment has improved and deaths are falling, they are coming down more slowly than in some other countries.
The UK has the third highest death rate from coronary heart disease in Europe, after Finland and Ireland.
A man of working age is more than twice as likely to die from coronary heart disease in the UK as in Italy.
In 2002, just under 238,000 people died in the UK of cardiovascular disease, which includes heart diseases and strokes. Of those, coronary heart disease was the cause of more than 117,000 deaths. It is the most common cause of premature death in the UK - responsible for 22% of early deaths in men and 13% in women.
The foundation says more effort should be put into persuading people of the wisdom of looking after their heart through exercise and good diet.
"Every year thousands of us are being told our coronary arteries are incapable of getting enough blood to our hearts and that, without surgery, our heart muscle could suffer irreparable damage," said Professor Sir Charles George, medical director of the foundation.
"Too many people in the UK are exercising too little, eating diets too high in fat, salt and sugar, and consequently becoming overweight or obese."
The foundation points out that the UK has the developed world's fastest growing rate of obesity: in 10 years, the percentage of adults who are obese has gone up from 14% of the population to 22%.
Of all countries where figures are availble, only Kuwait and Samoa are doing worse, it says.