Study Shows Risk of Heart Disease, Strokes Soaring Throughout China -- WSJ Article

Study Shows Risk of Heart Disease, Strokes Soaring Throughout China

HONOLULU -- The risk of heart attacks and strokes is rising sharply in China, raising the specter of a high-cost public-health crisis in the world's most populous nation.

For the first time at a major Western scientific meeting, researchers are reporting that nearly 30% of adult Chinese have high blood pressure and that one-third have elevated or high cholesterol levels. Nearly 6% of Chinese have diabetes while another 7% have blood-sugar levels indicating they are at risk of developing the disease.

"Everything was much higher than we expected," says Jiang He, a researcher at Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, and a co-author of several studies describing the prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors in China. Unless the country mounts an aggressive public-health effort to help reduce the risk, "China will expect a cardiovascular-disease epidemic in the very near future," Dr. He says.

The results, based on a survey of 15,540 Chinese adults between 35 and 74 years old, reflect growing concern over how cardiovascular disease -- generally regarded as a malady of Western nations, where it is the leading killer -- is spreading into the developing world. Indeed, heart experts believe the new data underscore how a global pandemic of heart disease is emerging, threatening the health of both the people and the economies of developing nations.

The likely culprit: Westernized living patterns, including smoking, lack of exercise and fast-food diets. At the end of last year, McDonald's Corp. had 430 restaurants in China; Tricon Global Restaurants Inc.'s KFC now has 600.

The cholesterol findings are especially surprising since China has been cited as an example of how populations adhering to diets low in saturated fats can hold down heart-disease risks. "The Chinese diet is changing. Their exercise patterns are changing," says Sidney Smith, chief scientific officer of the American Heart Association. "This report suggests that risk factors are increasing at an alarming rate."

As a member of a delegation of heart-association leaders invited to China last year by public-health officials to discuss prevention programs, Dr. Smith observed workers peddling to work on their bicycles in Beijing. But those in the more prosperous city of Guangzhou were riding motorized scooters. "They traded in the old exercise for a more modern, convenient form of transportation," he says.

The new reports also point to a significant opportunity -- and challenge -- for the global pharmaceutical industry, which sells a variety of medicines to help patients manage hypertension, cholesterol and diabetes. Indeed, Pfizer Inc., which markets Lipitor, a cholesterol remedy, and Norvasc, for high blood pressure -- each the top-selling drug in its category -- provided funding for the survey. A Pfizer spokesman says the company's principle goal for now is to "increase awareness" among treating physicians in China of the extent of the emerging cardiovascular disease problem.

The numbers are staggering. Based on recent census data, 27% of the population between 35 and 74 translates to 129.8 million people with high blood pressure. While reliable previous data are hard to come by, a 1990 study of Chinese over age 15 found that 90 million had high blood pressure.

The heart association estimates that 50 million Americans aged 6 and older have hypertension, which is a blood-pressure reading above 140/90. Similarly, the new data suggest that 112 million Chinese have what doctors refer to as borderline high total cholesterol, between 200 and 239; another 42 million have total cholesterol above 240 and are at especially high risk of heart attack. A total of 102 million Americans have cholesterol levels over 200. An estimated 26 million Chinese have diabetes compared to 16 million in the U.S. (Differing age ranges in studies of the Chinese and U.S. populations prevent precise rate comparisons.)

While many drugs are available in China for these conditions, the survey showed that among patients who would be candidates for cholesterol-lowering medicines under U.S. guidelines, just 3% were actually getting such drugs. About 28% of patients with high blood pressure are on a prescription drug, but just 8% have achieved recommended levels. Moreover, just 45% of hypertension patients and only 11% of patients with treatable high cholesterol were even aware of their condition.

All of this adds up to a huge potential market for drug makers, but whether they can take advantage of the opportunity is far from certain. Pharmaceutical companies are already under intense criticism over drug prices around the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, the industry has become embroiled in controversy over how to get drugs to the poor and AIDS-ravaged population there.

[Karl Note:  You will never see MY comment in the Wall Street Journal.  It is too hard to believe! But, the normal profit-motivation is NOT the only reason why Pfizer and other drug companies want to sell their drugs in China. There is the additional, sinister, motive of contributing to a world-wide planetary drugging that goes far beyond mere money motivation!  I predict, here in April 2002, that you will see increasingly that the drug companies are willing to allow their drugs to be sold at low prices, low profits, pretending to be "good citizens."  But the truth will be that their real purpose is to turn the world into a drugged society -- and that this is more important to them than money profits!]

While China's economy is much stronger than Africa's, the government has gradually withdrawn funding for health care in recent years and state enterprises that once provided free medical care no longer do. As a result, many people have to cover their own medical expenses, raising questions whether they would pay for drugs that treat conditions without obvious symptoms.

The China studies were presented here at a joint meeting of the Asia Pacific Scientific Forum and the heart association's annual conference on epidemiology and heart disease. Dr. He and his co-author, Dongfeng Gu of the Cardiovascular Institute at Chinese Academy of Medical Science, Beijing, say they made special efforts to insure that participants in the study were randomly selected from 10 different provinces and 20 different medical centers and clinics. All patients were tested individually by doctors.

Confirming earlier studies, the researchers found that a stunning 60% of Chinese men smoke, while just 7% of women smoke. But 51% of women are routinely exposed to second-hand smoke in the home, and 26% are exposed at work.

Unlike in the U.S., stroke is twice as common in China as heart attacks.

--Leslie Chang, Scott Hensley and Shirley Leung contributed to this article.

Write to Ron Winslow at ron.winslow@wsj.com ¹

Updated April 25, 2002

SUBSCRIBE:  The Wednesday Letter is a free electronic monthly newsletter written and published by Karl Loren.  You can view more than 50 back issues of this publication by clicking here.  The Wednesday Letter subscription list is maintained on a secure server, no name is ever given or sold to anyone, and it is never used except for this Newsletter.  It is automatically published on the Tuesday night just before the first Wednesday of every month.  You can subscribe to this free monthly electronic letter by entering your eMail address and name below.  You will then automatically receive a request for confirmation, sent to whatever address you have entered.  If you do NOT receive this confirmation request, then you will not be subscribed.  There may have been an error with your address and you should resubmit.  The letter is never sent twice to the same address -- so you do not have to worry about a duplicate subscription.  When you receive this confirmation request you must reply to it, or your subscription will not become active.  No one can subscribe your name, and address, without you being notified, and if you get an unwanted notice of subscription you only need to DO NOTHING and the subscription will NOT be active.

REMOVAL:  You can remove yourself from the subscription list in several different ways.  Click here to read about this entire newsletter system.  Every edition of The Wednesday Letter is delivered to your address with YOUR name and address in view on the letter, with a link that allows you to remove THAT name from the subscription list.  If you try to send this removal message from an address different from the one you used to send in your original confirmation, then you will get a warning notice first, sent to the subscription address, asking you to confirm that you want to be removed from the list -- by replying to THAT request for confirmation, you will then be automatically removed.  Thus, no one else can unsubscribe you, from some other computer, without your knowledge.  But, if you send in the unsubscribe notice from the same machine used to receive the Letter, then the removal from the subscription list is automatic.

Personal Message:  When you send a personal message to Karl Loren, you will receive a personal reply as per his instructions.  Karl pledges that every personal message will get a personal answer. When you provide your mail address, we will send you free information including our free catalog and a cassette tape lecture by Karl Loren about heart disease, no charge, by mail, even if outside the US.  You can select particular information you would like to receive, along with the free cassette tape and catalog.

You can reach Vibrant Life in many ways, including by mail to Vibrant Life, 2808 N. Naomi St., Burbank, CA 91504.  Within the US and Canada, use the toll free number:  (800) 523-4521, the local number:  (818) 558-1799, the FAX:  (818) 558-7299, eMail to kimberly@oralchelation.com or any one of the hundreds of message forms throughout the 50 web sites.  Vibrant Life normally ships the same day we get an order.  There are message forms on each of the 100,000+ pages on this and other sites where you can communicate with Vibrant Life.  Check out our companion site, at:  http://www.oralchelation.net where Karl's 2000 page book is published.  Karl Loren is the author and webmaster for this BOOK, as well as for another web site about ORAL CHELATION.  His personal philosophical articles are at PHILOSOPHY. 

Copyright © May 20, 2008 6:24 AM by Karl Loren on behalf of Vibrant Life, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  Permission is granted for non-commercial downloading, copying, distribution or redistribution on two conditions:  One, that some form of copyright notice is included in every copy distributed or copied, showing the copyright belonging to Vibrant Life, Burbank, CA, at www.oralchelation.com . The second condition is that the material is not to be used for any purpose contrary to the purposes and objectives of this site.  This permission does not extend to materials on this site which are copyrighted by others.