Lower Cholesterol

• 79.4 million people in the United States have some form of CVD. This includes diseases of the heart, stroke, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, congenital cardiovascular defects, hardening of the arteries and other diseases of the circulatory system.

• An estimated 72 million people in the United States age 20 or older have high blood pressure, a risk factor for CVD.

• It’s estimated that about 37.2 percent of non-Hispanic white men and 35 percent of non-Hispanic white women have CVD.*

• Among non-Hispanic blacks, 44.6 percent of men and 49 percent of women have CVD.*

• Among Mexican Americans, 31.6 percent of men and 34.4 percent of women have CVD.*

• The total cost for CVD-related medical care and disability in the United States will be $431.8 billion in 2007.

• 105.2 million people in the United States age 20 or older have blood cholesterol of 200 mg/dL or above, a risk factor for CVD.

* Estimates are age-adjusted to remove the effect of differences in the age distribution of population groups. Data from this U.S. government survey included Mexican Americans but not other people of Latino or Hispanic origin.