One in 5 deaths each year are a result of Heart Disease, and the American Heart Associations anticipates the problem to get worse in the next 25 years. An AHA report says the surge of cardiovascular risk factors, such as uncontrolled high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity could lead to heart disease and stroke affecting at least 60% of U.S. adults by 2050. The American Heart Association estimates more than 25% of Americans have high cholesterol, and 47% have high blood pressure. Even more alarming 115.9 million people are believed to have pre-diabetes, and another 9.7 million have undiagnosed diabetes.
Despite the risks many patients aren’t doing enough to mitigate their heart disease risks or continue to follow outdated guidance on their heart health.
Hackensack Meridian Health cardiologists are available for interviews on the following topics and more this February’s American Heart Month.
- GLP-1 medications improve cardiovascular outcomes – GLP-1s are subscribed for diabetes and weight loss, and treating both of these conditions reduce a patient’s risk of cardiovascular disease. GLP-1s have shown to improve a patient’s cardiovascular outcomes as well. More study needs to be done to determine if GLP-1s are reducing negative cardiovascular incidents by reducing diabetes and obesity or through other means. In March 2024, FDA Approved First Treatment to Reduce Risk of Serious Heart Problems Specifically in Adults with Obesity or Overweight.
- Black Patients More Likely To Die Of Heart Disease – Around 60% of Black American adults have heart disease, and heart disease death rates are highest among Black Americans compared to other racial and ethnic groups, according to the American Heart Association. The reasons behind the disparity are varied including high rates of diabetes, and hypertension, and socio-economic barriers to treatment.
- Alcohol Consumption Tied To Cardiovascular Disease Despite Previous Advice– The Surgeon General recently issued an advisory about the link between cancer and alcohol consumption, but for years it has been believed a glass of red wine is good for your heart. Now studies show drinking alcohol, even red wine, pose cardiovascular risks. Drinking alcohol increases a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease by 1-2% and risk of hypertension 2-11% among men and 4-18% among women.
- Too many people still take low-dose daily aspirin – for decades, taking low-dose aspirin (81 mg) every day was widely recommended as an easy way to prevent heart attacks and strokes. But that changed when growing evidence led the AHA, the American College of Cardiology and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to reconsider the advice in April 2022, especially for older people. Yet 57 percent of people ages 50 to 80 who regularly take low-dose aspirin probably won’t benefit from it because they don’t have a history of cardiovascular disease, according to a 2024, survey report from the University of Michigan.
- Sugary drinks are linked to millions of diabetes heart disease cases – a research paper in Nature Medicine, Jan. 2025, looked at data from 184 countries and found that in 2020 alone, 2.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cases of heart disease were linked to drinks high in sugar.
- People with microplastics and nanoplastics in plaque lining a major blood vessel in their neck may have a higher risk of heart attack, stroke or death, research suggests. The findings, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, March 2024, are the first time scientists have linked these tiny plastic particles, the result of degraded plastic pollution, to cardiovascular disease.
- There is an association between adverse pregnancy outcomes and cardiovascular disease during menopause, according to a study presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of The Menopause Society. Women who had preeclampsia during pregnancy and prone to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease later in life. The study did not find the same association with gestational diabetes.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is also a significant problem among new mothers. CVD accounts for more than 1 in 3 pregnancy-related deaths in the US. It’s the leading cause of death for new moms, according to the American Heart Association, increasing the need for hypertension to be addressed amongst expectant mothers and new moms.
Hackensack Meridian Health has experts, and patient care stories, available for interviews to address these trending topics in cardiology and other heart month topics.
Media Contacts:
Jessica Nussman
551-237-0984
Eric Muench
908-217-9776
