HEALTH

The Kill ers

T
here’s a Chris Rock bit where the comedian
contends that once someone is in their late
70s or 80s, no matter how they die, it can
always be chalked up to natural causes — even if
they got hit by a speeding bus. “Hey, if you were
younger, you’d have gotten out of the way in time,
right?” is roughly the punch line. While it’s certainly
still a good idea to look both ways, New Yorkers
should be more concerned about the following killers
than death by taxi.

Heart disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS and Type 2 diabetes

each place among the top five leading causes of
death in the Big Apple. Each can potentially strike
anyone, regardless of their lifestyle — children with
HIV are born every day, a non-smoking decathlete
can still develop lung cancer, and heart disease can
be as much a result of genetics as anything else. Live
here long enough, and your death will very likely be
attributable to one of these ailments. But treatment
methods are always evolving, and there are preventive
steps that every New Yorker can easily take to reduce
their risk. — By Stephen Hirst
ll HEART DISEASE
DIAGNOSIS
T his is the heavyweight, the
most prolific killer in all of
America by far — and in New
York City as well — causing al-
most 22,000 deaths in 2006. Ev-
ery 34 seconds that ticks by on
your wristwatch, someone in the
country dies of a heart attack.
It can be strictly a hereditary
issue, but often comes hand-in-
hand with high blood pressure,
high cholesterol, diabetes, obe-
sity, or all of the above, creating
a waterfall-effect of mounting,
critical health problems.
PROGNOSIS
E ssentially, coronary heart
disease is an accumulation
of arterial plaque. This can be
triggered by poor eating habits
and a sedentary lifestyle, or as
a result of a genetic predispo-
sition. This type of plaque col-
lects in any artery, but when it
gunks up coronary arteries, it
often (but not always) leads to
chest pain, and eventually a
heart attack. One reason for the
high mortality rate is the creep-
ing nature of the illness. For
many victims an arm “falling

30 • Resident The Week Of November 4, 2008