Betsy McKay on Trends in Heart Disease and How to Avoid It – #20

Steve and Corey talk to Betsy McKay, senior writer on U.S. and global public health at The Wall Street Journal, about her recent articles on heart disease. Betsy describes how background reporting led to her article linking the recent drop in life expectancy in the United States, often attributed to the opioid crisis or increases in middle age suicides due to economic despair, to the increasing prevalence of heart disease, driven by the rise in obesity. The three also discuss current public health recommendations on how to reduce heart disease risk and on the use of calcium scans to assess arterial plaque buildup. Steve describes boutique medical programs available to the super-rich that include full body scans to search for early signs of disease. Betsy elaborates on how she approached reporting on a new study linking egg consumption to higher cholesterol and increased risk of death, a result at odds with other recent findings and national recommendations that two eggs a day eggs is safe and healthy. Finally, they consider whether people are wasting money on buying fish oil supplements.

Resources

• Transcript
• Death Rates Rising for Young, Middle-Aged U.S. Adults
• How to Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease
• New BP guidelines that set elevated BP as above 120mmHG/80 and Stage 1 hypertension is 120-130/80-90, Stage 2 140/90 or above.
• New ACC/AHA High Blood Pressure Guidelines Lower Definition of Hypertension
• Heart Attack at 49—America’s Biggest Killer Makes a Deadly Comeback
• Study Links Eggs to Higher Cholesterol and Risk of Heart Disease
• Fish Oil: Hunting for Evidence to Tip the Scales
• Don’t Use Bootleg or Street Vaping Products, C.D.C. Warns