In fact, the incidence rate (not death rate) for heart disease34 is about the same as it was in the early 1970s.2 In other words, while we don’t die as much from heart disease, we still get it as often as we used to. In fact, very recent research finds that patients presenting with heart attacks are younger than ever before.35 It seems that we simply have gotten slightly better at postponing death from heart disease, but we have done nothing to stop the rate at which our hearts become diseased.
