Diabetes and Hypertension Compete in Causing Heart Failure to Older Americans

Diabetes and hypertension have been found to be competing to cause heart failure and eventually death among older Americans. Therefore, it is highly recommended to focus on the treatment of these illnesses to avoid heart attacks and death.

About 300,000 Americans die of heart failure annually and the major causes of this are diabetes and hypertension. There has been a study conducted that resulted to the conclusion that without hypertension and diabetes, the risk of getting into heart failure disappears.

Over 4.7 million Americans have congestive heart failure (CHF) nowadays and every year, this disease occupies topmost cause of death of 250,000 people. It is realized that 1 congestive heart failure is found in 2 percent of people aged 40 to 69, beyond 5 percent of people aged 60 to 69 and in 10 percent of people aged 70 and above.

Congestive heart failure is a type of heart disease that increases its prevalence in causing deaths. CHF which is caused mainly by diabetes and hypertension, is in itself a result of poor prognosis, hospitalizations and drains a lot of Medicare budget while robbing many senior citizens the chance to enjoy their retirement years.

John Hopkins cardiologists found that genetics- and environmental-related illnesses diabetes and hypertension play a big role in developing heart failure, and not so with race.

Aside from diabetes and high blood pressure, some causes of heart failure are family history, age, smoking, gender, socio-economic factors and some other health problems. Some studies were conducted in the past to see the topmost cause of heart failure and focused quite much on race but with the absence of diabetes and hypertension, the risk of heart failure evaporates, especially among African-Americans.

Hossein Bahrami, M.P.H., M.D. – a lead researcher has a clear message to the physicians. That in order to get rid of heart failure especially among elder Americans, they should be more aggressive in treating diabetes and hypertension either by increasing the frequency of screenings or emphasizing therapies and medications. These two contributors of heart failure, which are diseases themselves should be put under control all the time.