Death rates from cardiovascular disease have fallen dramatically — what were the breakthroughs behind this?
Death rates from cardiovascular disease have fallen dramatically — what were the breakthroughs behind this?
admin 2025/08/11 12:24Over a century of progress in surgery, drugs, prevention, and emergency response has driven down death rates from heart disease and stroke.
For much of history, heart disease was a mystery. Middle-aged adults often collapsed without warning, and doctors usually blamed “dropsy”, “apoplexy”, or simply “old age.”1
In 1945 — at just 63 years old — President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sitting for a portrait when he raised a hand to his head and whispered, “I have a terrific pain in the back of my head.” Minutes later, he lost consciousness and died from a massive brain hemorrhage — a consequence of uncontrolled high blood pressure and heart disease, which doctors at the time couldn’t treat.2
Roosevelt wasn’t alone. Mid-twentieth-century medicine, even for some of the world's most powerful people, often lacked the tools to treat or sometimes even diagnose specific cardiovascular diseases.
There was no routine blood pressure screening. There were only basic diagnostic tools — no CT, MRI, or echocardiography to spot clots or artery damage. Even if someone was diagnosed...
➤➤➤ SEE MORE @ Our World In Data
For much of history, heart disease was a mystery. Middle-aged adults often collapsed without warning, and doctors usually blamed “dropsy”, “apoplexy”, or simply “old age.”1
In 1945 — at just 63 years old — President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sitting for a portrait when he raised a hand to his head and whispered, “I have a terrific pain in the back of my head.” Minutes later, he lost consciousness and died from a massive brain hemorrhage — a consequence of uncontrolled high blood pressure and heart disease, which doctors at the time couldn’t treat.2
Roosevelt wasn’t alone. Mid-twentieth-century medicine, even for some of the world's most powerful people, often lacked the tools to treat or sometimes even diagnose specific cardiovascular diseases.
There was no routine blood pressure screening. There were only basic diagnostic tools — no CT, MRI, or echocardiography to spot clots or artery damage. Even if someone was diagnosed...
➤➤➤ SEE MORE @ Our World In Data
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