The Top 12 PREVENTABLE Causes of Death

Smoking + Obesity + Inactivity + High Blood Sugar +....

According to a new study by Harvard public health researchers, the leading preventable risk factors for premature death in the United States are:

1. Smoking: 467,000 deaths.
   
2. High blood pressure: 395,000 deaths.
3. Overweight-obesity: 216,000 deaths.
4. Inadequate physical activity and inactivity: 191,000 deaths.
5. High blood sugar: 190,000 deaths.
6. High LDL cholesterol: 113,000 deaths.
7. High dietary salt: 102,000 deaths.
8. Low dietary omega-3 fatty acids (seafood): 84,000 deaths.
9. High dietary trans fatty acids: 82,000 deaths.
10. Alcohol use: 64,000 deaths.
11. Low intake of fruits and vegetables: 58,000 deaths.
12. Low dietary poly-unsaturated fatty acids: 15,000 deaths.

This study is the most comprehensive look at how diet, lifestyle and various other chronic disease risk factors contribute to mortality in the U.S.

And it produced some interesting observations:

• Smoking is responsible for approximately 20% of all deaths in the U.S.
• High blood pressure is responsible for 1 in 6 deaths
• Obesity + physical inactivity = 407,000 deaths per year ≈ 17% of all deaths
  
• High blood pressure kills 5x as many women as breast cancer
• 70% of the alcohol related deaths happened to men…way to go guys
• High blood sugar killed 3x as many people as alcohol
• 2/3 of the deaths attributed to high blood sugar, obesity and high blood pressure occurred in only 10-33% of the overall population.

• 1,051,000 deaths can be attributed to poor dietary choices. That’s 45% of all deaths.

Maybe you should print this out and stick it to your fridge.

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Reference

• PLoS Medicine
• PDF copy of the full study
• EurekAlert review of the study
  

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