This was no "Stupid Human trick."
David Letterman, the funny man of late-night television, turned deadly serious during a recent taping of his television program as he discussed his problems with high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease. He shocked viewers, CBS officials and close associates by announcing he would undergo angioplasty, a relatively minor surgical procedure to clear clogged arteries. Instead, Letterman underwent quintuple bypass surgery and will require several weeks to recuperate.Letterman's surgery has brought the national spotlight on coronary heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer. As Letterman's example demonstrates, heart disease does not discriminate. Letterman's health issues should serve as a wake-up call for all Americans at risk of heart disease to seek a physician's care or at least become educated about risk factors.
To look at Letterman, one would never guess he was at risk for heart disease. He is thin and looks healthy. But risk factors tell another story. According to the American Heart Association, men have a greater risk of heart attack than women. The risk increases with age, and the children of parents with heart disease are more likely to develop it themselves. Letterman's father, Joe, died at age 50 of a heart attack. Letterman is 52.
While age, gender and heredity (including race) are major risk factors, other risk factors can be controlled by changes in lifestyle habits or regulated through medication. These risk factors include smoking; high blood cholesterol levels; high blood pressure; physical inactivity; obesity; and diabetes mellitus. Stress may also play a role.
Although men are more prone to heart disease than women, this is by no means strictly a male health issue. Since 1984, the number of cardiovascular disease deaths for women has exceeded those for men. At older ages, women who suffer heart attacks are twice as likely as men to die from them within a few weeks of the attack.
Cancer remains a considerable threat to women's health, but heart disease is a more prolific killer. Deaths attributed to all forms of cardiovascular disease outnumbered cancer deaths nearly 2-1 in 1996, according to the American Heart Association.
According to Letterman's physicians, he has an excellent prognosis for a full and speedy recovery. As the American television viewing audience awaits his return, they would do well to investigate their own affairs of the heart.