Obesity ‘to send heart death toll rising again’

A MASS decline in heart disease deaths as people quit smoking is being undone by soaring obesity levels, experts have warned.

Deaths from heart problems have halved over the past decade due to plummeting smoking rates, figures show. But heart disease remains the UK’s biggest killer and deaths are set to increase again as Britain’s waistlines expand.

A study from Imperial College London found deaths from heart disease fell dramatically between 2005 and 2015 – from 80 deaths per 100,000 people to 46.

However, it still caused double the number of deaths of lung cancer – the second-biggest killer.

Scientists said the decline was fuelled by a drop in the number of smokers – now at a record low following a 2007 law banning cigarette use in pubs, restaurants and offices. But Britain’s spiralling obesity crisis – driven by poor diets and sedentary lifestyles – means the death toll is likely to increase again in the next few years, it was warned.

Heart disease, when your arteries become narrowed by a buildup of fatty material, is the most common cause of heart attacks. It causes more than a quarter of all deaths in the UK – nearly 170,000 deaths each year.

Dr Alexandra Nowbar, of Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute, said: ‘We’ve seen a significant drop in smoking rates in recent years which has been good news for our hearts.

‘However, obesity, blood pressure and rates of Type 2 diabetes are on the rise, and if we don’t keep tabs on these... we could see the trend of falling heart disease deaths reverse in the future.’

The study, published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, said that more public health interventions are needed to encourage healthy lifestyles.

More than 15million adults in the UK are now obese – 28 per cent of the adult population. Hospital admissions due to obesity have soared by 15 per cent in the past year, with experts warning that the crisis is putting the NHS under severe strain. Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, said last week that obesity was becoming the ‘new smoking’.