Cardiovascular diseases were the most common cause of death among low-income countries (death from cardiovascular was 3X times that from Cancer) that I hail from. It was found to be common even in middle-income countries. However, in high-income countries, Cancer was the winner. It was in fact twice that of people dying from cardiovascular diseases.
Given that cardiovascular diseases are preventable gives us the hope that if only we are intelligent, then it should not be a problem. Knowing a problem is about getting to a 90% solution.
The stuff that can and should be controlled are:
High blood pressure
Tobacco-related indiscipline
Lack of educational resources
Pollution
It goes without saying that handling all of this is a reasonable way to save lots of lives. If we value science, value data and statistics should we not be proactive?
Cancer is yet another story. Do we need to boost our immunity, hook, or crook? It has been the cause of death in high-income societies (Lata Palaniappan - Stanford University Medical Center). While few of the controllable items were listed for cardiovascular diseases, a similar list for cancer control perhaps does not exist and even if it does it will be extensive and long.
That brings me back to my motivation in writing this. My friend Mr. Narasimhan who lives in the UK wrote to me that he will walk his walk to raise funds for research. This is extremely laudable except that I won't be able to participate as I was getting treated for tendonitis of the foot yesterday.
I wish my friend Narasimhan a happy walk for this cause.
He is brave doing this in his senior years (80 and 2 summers). We have not met in 50 odd years, but we correspond regularly.
This is an old reference and I bet you can find a recent one in Lancet.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/03/health/leading-cause-of-death-cancer-heart-disease-study/index.html
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