Number one leading cause of death: Heart Disease. Yes, that is generally true throughout the developed world. On the other hand, heart disease death rates have

Number one leading cause of death: Heart Disease. Yes, that is generally true throughout the developed world. On the other hand, heart disease death rates have been declining at all relevant ages across several decades throughout the developed world.[1] Our understanding of what causes heart disease is very partial indeed. On the other hand, our understanding of how to treat heart disease has increased enormously in my lifetime. My mom, still alive and well at age eighty-one, was a surgical nurse who was described by my late dad as "one of a dozen people in the world who could disassemble and reassemble a heart-lung machine" early in her career. She has seen enormous progress in surgical treatment of heart conditions that used to be sure death sentences, and medical treatment for heart disease has improved greatly too. A CDC report on declining heart disease in the United States[2] suggests what more can be done. [1] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=longevity-why-we-die-global-life-expectancy http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=longevity-w... [2] http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/p1013_heart_disease.html http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/p1013_heart_disease.h...