#1 Killer in the United States
While heart disease is still the number-one killer in the United States , it’s also no longer a guaranteed death sentence, thanks to newer medications, improved surgical techniques, and better understanding of the disease . Society as a whole has also gotten better at preventing heart disease . A 2018 study in the journal Circulation found that the overall rate of heart disease in the U.S. had declined 38% since 1990. Other developed countries have seen even greater reductions. But these improvements haven’t benefited everyone equally —and one new study shows a troubling trend among young people, and young women, in particular . When researchers looked at hospitalization rates for heart attacks between 1995 and 2014, they found that those numbers had steadily increased among people ages 35 to 54. More specifically, hospitalization rates remained relatively stable among men in this age group but increased significantly (from about 21% t