Heart health is easy

There is a reason you're reading a lot of stories right now about heart health. It's American Heart Month. (Picture from Yale New Haven Hospital.)

But the news isn't good. Some if it is as serious as, well, a heart attack.

As this blog noted in December, many heart risks are linked to diet, and you can start creating plaque in childhood. As any society eats more meat and fat, their rate of heart attack goes up.

Trouble is most of us are immune to the easy solution. Eat less, especially fatty meat, exercise more. Neither men nor women are heeding this warning.

As a result, the heart gains we got from quitting smoking and taking statins are starting to fade into memory. Instead we're looking for new wonder drugs.

And you wonder why the nation's health care bill is climbing? It's your right to eat that pork chop. Is it my responsibility to pay for the heart attack that results?[poll id=14]