Heart disease has haunted generations of Robin Drummond’s family. “I have a family history of heart disease on both sides,” says the 55-year-old African-American and resident of Hammond, La. “I’ve had uncles, aunts, and grandparents who’ve died from heart attacks and heart disease, and two of my mother’s brothers died four months apart. One had a heart attack in church, and four months later, one had a heart attack in the post office.”
When Drummond’s father succumbed to heart disease at age 50, she was shaken. “Particularly when my dad died, I wanted to make sure that I was OK,” she says. In 2002, she went to her doctor for testing and learned that her heart was mildly enlarged, placing her at risk for heart failure. Drummond, a registered dietitian, took strenuous measures to ward off trouble. But not all African-Americans are aware of the danger.
African-Americans and Heart Failure
In a startling 2009 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that African-Americans have a much higher incidence of heart failure than other races, and it develops at younger ages. Heart failure means that the heart isn’t able to pump blood as well as it should.
Before age 50, African-Americans’ heart failure rate is 20 times higher than that of whites, according to the study. Four risk factors are the strongest predictors of heart failure: high blood pressure (also called hypertension), chronic kidney disease, being overweight, and having low levels of HDL, the “good” cholesterol. Three-fourths of African-Americans who develop heart failure have high blood pressure by age 40.
African-Americans and Health Care
To prevent heart failure and other heart disease, it’s crucial to treat risk factors successfully, says Anne L. Taylor, MD, a professor of medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital and vice dean of academic affairs at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. But, compared with their white peers, African-Americans often have less access to health care, she says. Not only are they less likely to visit a doctor and get routine screenings, but they’re less likely to be referred to specialists.
For the full aricle go to: http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/features/why-african-americans-greater-risk-heart-disease#1
