Heart failure and heart disease is no laughing matter. About 600,000 people die in the United States each year due to heart disease. That’s a quarter or 25 percent of all American deaths. If you’re anything like the average reader, that statistic will be mind-blowing to you. Most Americans are at least somewhat aware of our health issues as a nation. It’s no secret that we’re an overweight country, an excessive country, and a country that exercises far less than we should. But one out of every four deaths in the United States being attributable to the same thing? Seems too unlikely to be true. Sadly, it is completely true. Heart failure really does kill 25 percent of us, and it is precisely as likely you’ll meet your end due to trouble with your ticker, too. It’s a serious risk for all of us.

Heart specialists, cardiac surgeons, and cardiologists agree that heart failure is probably the most significant threat to our nation’s well being. Virtually nothing else in the world, not cancer, not other diseases, not crime, etc. have as much killing power (for lack of a better word) as does heart disease.

It’s almost strange, then, that we aren’t paying more attention to our hearts as a nation. Every single year, over 700,000 Americans have a heart attack. Not all are fatal, but each time someone has a heart attack and survives, it is still indicative of the body sending very dire warnings that it is not as healthy as it should be. The total amount of money spent on curtailing our heart disease problem totaled $320 billion at one point.

So not only are a huge chunk of the population falling to heart disease, but a huge chunk of our economy goes right along with it. One thing seems abundantly clear — if we’re going to become the most healthy America that we can possibly be, we’ve got to figure out a way to put the brakes on heart disease above almost anything else.