Researchers have uncovered a devastating health crisis requiring urgent action: less than 7 percent of the U.S. adult population has good cardiometabolic health.
“These numbers are striking. It’s deeply problematic that in the United States, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, fewer than 1 in 15 adults have optimal cardiometabolic health.” —In the study, researchers evaluated Americans across five components of health: levels of blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar, adiposity , and presence or absence of cardiovascular disease They discovered that only 6.8% of U.S. adults had optimal levels of all five components as of 2017-2018.
The team also identified large health disparities between people of different sexes, ages, races and ethnicities, and education levels. For example, adults with less education were half as likely to have optimal cardiometabolic health compared with adults with more education, and Mexican Americans had one-third the optimal levels versus non-Hispanic White adults.
The consequences of the dire state of health among U.S. adults reach beyond personal health. “Its impacts on national healthcare spending and the financial health of the entire economy are enormous,” O’Hearn said. “And these conditions are largely preventable. We have the public health and clinical interventions and policies to be able to address these problems.”
Where are we after all keeping in disguise that most of the long-term and short-term studies are based now on pharmaceutical favors and aggrandizement? Likewise, many researchers and practitioners are lured by the idea of achieving sponsorship from pharma companies.