Epidemic Of Atherosclerosis. Part 1

When a spanish-speaking friend wants to wish you the very best that life can offer, he will often lift his glass with the following toast: "To health and wealth - and time to enjoy both." Embodied in this simple salute are the three basic desires common to people everywhere in all ages.

Why can't we live longer? Everyone wants to live longer. It is one of the most deeply rooted instincts of mankind. Everyone wants to live a life of usefulness and abundance, free of disease and unhappiness. As we grow older, we look forward even more anxiously to increasing our lifespan. We want time to enjoy our achievements, time still to make plans. By the time we reach 60 we realize with the great French painter Gauguin that "life is a split second." We begin to think about all the things we still want to do before we reach our seventieth year. If we are fortunate enough to pass our seventieth birthday, we wonder whether we can't live even longer - perhaps to be 80. Well, why can't we? We are living much longer than did our ancestors a century ago. We have added 20 years to the average life expectancy in America since 1900.

Advances in medical science have outlawed many diseases. These golden years are ours because of advances made by tireless research in medical science. They represent a decisive victory over the contagious and infectious diseases which sometimes wiped out whole sections of our population a generation ago. Thanks to the new knowledge provided by recent research, we no longer need fear the ravages of such diseases as diphtheria, scarlet and typhoid fever, syphilis and - to a great extent - tuberculosis. All these pestilences, however, were caused by those invisible but ever-present enemies of health - germs. Today the picture has changed. With the victory over deadly microorganisms, a new threat has emerged in clearer and more frightening perspective.

The 20th Century epidemic. A single, fundamental disease of the human body can now be held accountable for much of the illness and more than half of all deaths occurring each year in the United States It is a disorder known by the general term of "arteriosclerosis," which means a hardening and thickening of the arteries. It is now so widespread that Dr. Paul Dudley White, the noted heart specialist, recently described it as "a modern epidemic." As the disease progresses - sometimes over a long period of time - the vessels that carry the blood from the heart to the body's tissues become stiff, and their inner surfaces roughened and thick. These conditions lay the groundwork for the three most common causes of death and disablement in America: heart attack, heart failure, and stroke. Is there anything that can be done to vanquish this number one killer, whose favorite victims are men in their middle span of life, and even the very young, sometimes those in their twenties? The answer is "yes" - provided you will take the time and the trouble now to learn a few simple rules. Much of the exact nature of arteriosclerosis is still unknown.

But during the past 10 years we have learned a great deal in the fields of pathology, chemistry, biology, and nutrition that has provided us with clues to the mystery, and a practical approach to treatment for the first time. Widespread popular interest in the heart and in the aging process has helped immeasurably in the conquest of disease. But at the same time, it has been responsible for a good deal of fear and confusion among lay people. Some of these misconceptions are reflected in the questions my patients ask after reading articles of the kind that now appear in many newspapers and magazines. Take diseases of the heart and blood vessels, for example. Terms such as atherosclerosis, coronary thrombosis, and cholesterol are today fairly commonplace, even in publications for the general reader. But few non-medical people know exactly what these words mean.