A Good Postal Code Leads To A Longer Life
14 Feb 2008
I’ve just returned from a "Canadian Medical Education Course" on Cardiology aboard Norweigen cruise line. Being a former ship’s surgeon I love being at sea. Besides, a sea voyage is a great way to recharge your batteries. And it provided an opportunity to listen day after day to a diverse group of international cardiologists who discussed the nation’s number one killer. Now I know the importance of one’s postal code. And why North Americans should never forget "Matthew’s Law"
Dr. Stuart Smith, one of Canada’s leading cardiologists, reported that heart failure is the new cancer of our society. Each year over one million people in North America suffer heart attack. Half of these patients die within an hour. The rest may be left with damaged hearts susceptible to heart failure later on.
Patients suffering from heart failure during the last six months of life usually complain of shortness of breath, fatigue, chronic cough and the fear they’re going to die. But much has been learned in recent years about how to increase their survival rate.
Dr. Smith presented studies showing that patients with this disease will live longer if they’re referred to specialists who deal with this problem. It’s the old story that practice makes perfect.
So never give up if you have a failing heart as it’s like the cat that has nine lives. Often patients close to death recover time and time again making it difficult for cardiologists to predict a patient’s longevity. A British study revealed that even these specialists were wrong 75 percent of the time in predicting the time of death.
But why are so many people developing heart failure? It’s because many North Americans have not learned the importance of "Matthew’s Law". This states that it’s the sum of all your bad habits that leads to heart failure.
For instance, Dr. John Woolridge, a prominent cardiologist in Sydney, Australia, described how obesity causes diabetes which in turn results in atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart attack and finally heart failure.
Dr. Walter Savage, a San Francisco cardiologist, outlined another way in which Matthew’s Law affects patients with a failing heart. Add the presence of kidney disease and the result is an earlier death. And it’s diabetes that causes 66 percent of these kidneys to fail.
So North Americans should have listened years ago to Pogo, the comic strip character, who told us, "We have identified the enemy and the enemy is us!" Too many people are dying prematurely of heart failure and other self-made diseases that should never happen. Dr. Smith displayed one picture that illustrated why the next generation is headed for more trouble. It showed children watching TV with the caption, "Children not at play." Today 91 percent of Canadian children have bicycles, but only five percent ride them to school. And the amount of time they watch TV is among the highest in the world.
As Dr. Woolridge remarked, "Lack of exercise and supersized food portions results in supersized chairs with people ending up in a casket made by "The Goliath Casket Company", too early in life.
One way to prevent this end is to improve your postal code. Dr. Smith reported that being rich means you’re more likely to be a non-smoker, not obese or suffer from hypertension or high cholesterol. Men residing in good postal codes live six years longer (women three years) than those less well off. Men can also expect more than 14 years free of disabling disease (women eight) being on the right side of the tracks.
Were there surprises? I was amazed that most cardiologists are not prescribing Coenzyme Q10 for patients taking cholesterol-lowering drugs. These drugs lower the level of this enzyme, which provides energy to the heart’s muscle, by as much as 40 percent. Some researchers believe that failing to prescribe this enzyme may be one reason for the epidemic of heart failure.
All told, the course provided a learning experience which I highly recommend. Doctors interested in future trips should visit the web site www.CMEatSea.org or call 1-888-523-3732. It might be possible to also arrange a sea course for readers on ‘How to be a smart medical consumer".
