Heart disease stalks 51 Australians every day

Heart disease remains Australia's biggest serial killer. It's time to turn the tide.

Bill Stavreski

Heart disease remains Australia's biggest serial killer. It's time to turn the tide.

After three heart attacks, Tony Charlton knows he is lucky to be alive.

The first was in July 1997, shortly before his 49th birthday. He was rushed to hospital, where he technically died nine times in the emergency ward.

“Nine times my heart stopped, and each time the doctors restarted it,” said Tony. “I later learned that it was very unusual for a patient to survive this scenario.”

But Tony’s ordeal wasn’t over. In January 2001, on two separate days, he suffered another two heart attacks. “I am so thankful and lucky that I am still here to see my four grandchildren grow up,” said Tony, now 70.

While Tony survived, many do not – and we, as a nation, cannot ignore the statistics. We do so at our own peril. Literally.

Consider this: heart disease is Australia's single leading cause of death. In 2017 alone, heart disease claimed the lives of 18,590 Australians.

That’s a staggering 51 people a day.

A major cause of heart disease deaths is heart attacks. Each year, around 57,000 Australians suffer a heart attack. This equates to one heart attack every 10 minutes. In 2017, an average of 21 Australians died from a heart attack each day.

The death of a loved one impacts many more people – family, friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, thousands more Australians are at risk of heart disease because of factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking and diabetes.

“The more risk factors you have, the bigger your risk is,” said Bill Stavreski, the Heart Foundation’s General Manager of Heart Health and Research. “Australian studies show that having three risk factors increases a person’s risk of having a heart attack or angina by at least double.”  

While the good news is deaths from heart disease have been falling, heart-related disease continues to kill more Australians than any other single cause.

So how can we lower the statistics even further?

“Some risks you can’t change – like age, gender, family background – but there are steps we can all take towards reducing our risk. To be heart healthy, it is important to be smoke-free, get at least 30 minutes of activity a day, limit your alcohol intake and maintain a healthy weight,” Mr Stavreski said.

Whilst positive lifestyle changes do decrease a person’s risk of a heart event, high blood pressure and high cholesterol remain major risk factors for a heart attack. Yet many people don’t link them to heart attacks.

When asked what places a person at risk of a heart attack or stroke, the majority surveyed by the Heart Foundation in 2018, 82 per cent, focused on lifestyle risk factors such as poor nutrition, lack of exercise or high body mass. Clinical risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, were flagged by only 11 per cent.

Another misconception is that people perceive heart problems as an old man’s disease, but heart disease kills Australians of all ages. Excluding self-harm and injuries, it was the leading disease cause of death for 25 to 44-year-olds from 2014-2016.

Mr Stavreski said the best thing Australians can do to find out about their risk of heart disease is to see their doctor for a heart health check. “We recommend this for every Australian aged 45 and over, or 35 and over for Indigenous Australians,” he said.

For heart health information, call the Heart Foundation Helpline on 13 11 12 or visit  heartfoundation.org.au.

Originally published as Heart disease stalks 51 Australians every day