Heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, and unintentional injuries cause nearly 900,000 premature deaths in the US each year. But, notes a recent study, 20–40% of deaths from each of these causes could be prevented. [s]News-Medical[/s] reports that the study, conducted by [b]Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)[/b], analysed deaths before age 80 years from each cause between 2008 and 2010 in each US state. The authors then calculated how many deaths from each cause would have been prevented if the lowest death rates were applied to all states. The found that personal behaviour is largely responsible for each of the five leading cause of death. Consequently, the risk of death from these causes can be reduced by lifestyle changes.
Reducing six modifiable risk factors to the agreed target levels could prevent over 37m premature UK deaths over 15 years. [s]Medical News Today[/s] reports that though the prospect of saving these millions of lives is promising, there is another, more worrying side to the finding: if these targets are not reached, 38.8m deaths from the four main non-communicable diseases – cardiovascular diseases, respiratory disease, cancers and diabetes – will likely occur in 2025. This number is 10.5m deaths more than in 2010, researchers at [b]Imperial College London[/b] say.
[link url=http://www.news-medical.net/news/20140502/Tens-of-thousands-of-premature-deaths-could-be-prevented-each-year.aspx]Full News-Medical report[/link]
[link url=http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6317a1.htm?s_cid=mm6317a1_w]CDC research[/link]
[link url=http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/276282.php]Full Medical News Today report[/link]
[link url=http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60616-4/abstract]The Lancet research summary[/link]