Opinion - Reducing cardiovascular risk: too little, too late, too short-term

David Gray

University Hospital, Nottingham, UK

Vascular diseases in general, and cardiovascular disease in particular, are diseases of mass destruction, killing more people in the Western world (and increasingly in the developing world) than world wars. Each year, coronary heart disease kills over half a million Americans and over 100 000 British citizens each year, often prematurely (WHO online).