NEW YORK - Cancer has overtaken heart disease
as the No. 1 killer among Hispanics in the U.S., and the rest of the country
may be only a few years behind.
The change is not exactly cause for alarm.
Death rates for both cancer and heart disease have been dropping for Hispanics
and everyone else. It's just that heart disease deaths have fallen faster,
largely because of improved treatment and prevention, including the development
of cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Overall, cancer will probably replace heart
disease as the nation's top cause of death in the next 10 years, said Rebecca
Siegel of the American Cancer Society, lead author of a study reporting the new
findings. Government health statisticians think the crossover point could be
reached as early as this year, or at least in the next two or three years.
The reason it has already happened among
Hispanics is that they are younger on average than non-Hispanic whites and
blacks. And cancer tends to kill people earlier in life than heart disease, for
decades the nation's top cause of death.
The shift could bring about a change in
disease-prevention efforts, government spending priorities and people's
attitudes.
"We've been so focused on heart disease
mortality for so long. ... This may change the way people look at their
risk," said Robert Anderson, who oversees the Centers for Disease
Prevention and Control branch that monitors death statistics.
The study is being published in the
September/October issue of a cancer society publication, CA: A Cancer Journal
for Clinicians.
Cancer society researchers looked at federal
death data for 2009 and found that 29,935 Hispanics died of cancer and 29,611
of heart disease. It was the first year in which cancer deaths surpassed heart
disease in that ethnic group.
Cancer is also the leading cause of death for
Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. And it is now the leading killer in 18
states, according to 2009 numbers from the CDC.
Hispanics are the nation's largest and
fastest-growing major ethnic group, and many of them are young immigrants from
Mexico. Most heart disease deaths are in people 65 and older. The vast majority
of Hispanics in the U.S. are under 55.
The story is different in Mexico, which has an
older population. There, diabetes is the biggest killer, with cancer No. 2,
according to 2009 statistics from the Pan American Health Organization.
Interestingly, none of the states where cancer
has overtaken heart disease is in the Southwest, which has large Hispanic
populations. Instead, most are in the nation's northern tier, including Alaska,
Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the four states of upper
New England.
Deut 28:60- Moreover he will bring upon thee
all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave
unto thee.
Deut 28:61- Also every sickness, and every
plague, which [is] not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD
bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
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