Globally, heart disease and stroke1 (or cerebrovascular disease), which I lump together under the single heading of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or ASCVD, represent the leading cause of death, killing an estimated 2,300 people2 every day in the United States, according to the CDC—more than any other cause, including cancer. It’s not just men who are at risk:3 American women are up to ten times more likely to die from atherosclerotic disease than from breast cancer (not a typo: one in three versus one in thirty).
