| An increase in teen smoking could be behind
the rise in sudden cardiac deaths among young Americans, Reuters reported
March 2.
According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1989 to 1996 the mortality rate from sudden cardiac death increased by 10 percent in young men and 32 percent among young women. Sudden cardiac death kills 259,000 Americans each year. Data from the CDC shows that the proportion of high-school students who said they regularly smoked cigarettes rose from 12 percent to 17 percent during the 1990s. Dr. George Mensah, the report's co-investigator and chief of cardiovascular health at the CDC, said a variety of factors could be responsible for the rise in sudden cardiac death. In addition to an increase in teen smoking, Mensah said other causes could be "increases in obesity, diabetes, and lack of exercise." The report was presented at the recent Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention sponsored by the American Heart Association. As a result of the new CDC's findings, Dr. Ronald M. Krauss, chair of the American Heart Association's council on nutrition, physical activity and metabolism, said renewed efforts are needed to reduce smoking among young people. |