Lockdown reversed FIVE YEARS of heart disease progress: Deaths up 4% for the first time since 2011

Cardiovascular deaths rose in 2020 for the first time in a decade — with a rise so dramatic that it wiped out five years of progress in the fight against America’s worst killer.

The study led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 325 of every 100,000 Americans died of heart disease in 2020 — a four percent increase from 2019.

This figure ends a decades-long trend in the number of cardiovascular deaths in the U.S., and brings the death rates back to where they were in 2015 — losing progress.

Lockdowns across the country restricted Americans’ access to medical care, leading to thousands of additional deaths from conditions other than Covid.

Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans and has remained so during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CDC reports that the disease killed 696,962 people in 2020, nearly double the 350,000 deaths caused by Covid itself.

The death rate from heart disease had fallen in the U.S. since records were first tracked in the 1990s, the researchers write.

“Before 2020, adult heart disease death rates had been declining for decades, which has been recognized by the CDC as one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the last century,” said Dr. Rebecca Woodruff, an epidemiologist. from the CDC. pronunciation.

“The increase in deaths from heart disease in 2020 represented about 5 years of lost progress in adults across the country and about 10 years of lost progress in younger adults and non-Hispanic black adults.”

When COVID-19 first broke out in the US in March 2020, many doctor appointments were canceled for fear of the virus.

As a result, many important appointments, screenings and surgeries were missed and early intervention by healthcare professionals can no longer save lives.

While Covid was responsible for 90% of excess deaths in the US during the first year of the pandemic, there was also an increase in deaths caused by cancer, heart and cognitive disease, the CDC reports.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many aspects of daily life, including access to preventive health care, potentially leading to delays in detecting and treating heart disease,” continued Dr. Woodruff.

‘We expected an increase in the death rate from cardiovascular disease among adults, but the magnitude of the increase was striking.’

Researchers found that the national heart disease death rate dropped 9.8 percent between 2010 and 2019 — from 347.3 to 313 deaths per 100,000 Americans.

In 2020, the figure rose 4.1 percent, with much of this increase being offset by younger adults.

For people aged 35 to 54, a group with the lowest rates, deaths from the condition decreased by 5.5 percent from 2010 to 2019.

In 2020, the figure grew by 12 percent in 2020.

Similar, but smaller, growth was also observed in middle-aged Americans. There was a 2.3 percent drop in deaths from 2010 to 2019, before a 7.8 percent increase in 2020.

In addition to the lockdowns, experts are also speculating that poor diet, drug and alcohol abuse and less physical activity caused heart problems to increase in 2020.

Heart disease was not the only condition that worsened during the pandemic.

Official CDC data shows an increase in deaths from respiratory, circulatory, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other causes.

Studies have also shown that while cancer diagnosis has declined, detected cases are often more deadly because they are not found until later in the development of the disease.

There is also a marked increase in mental health problems such as anxiety and depression in the US, especially among young people and children.

The Alzheimer’s Society also warns that lockdowns are causing a rapid decline in the condition in people who have already been diagnosed.

The Alzheimer’s Association reports that deaths from the disease rose 16 percent in 2021, with the jump the previous year linked to treatment disruptions.