By Kenny Anderson
“More than half of people in the U.S. (51%) don’t know that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the country. The rate of death from heart disease is significantly higher than the homicide rate in the United States, at 167.2 deaths per 100,000 population compared to 5.7 homicides per 100,000. Indeed, way-way more Blacks die from heart disease than homicides, yeah heart attacks alone kills more of us than gun shots.” - KenRaySun
The American Heart Association’s (AHA) 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update reports that Black communities in the United States face disproportionately higher risk of heart disease along with high rates of strokes and hypertension that results in disproportionately high heart disease death rates, underscoring the urgent need for lifesaving intervention.
The report notes that Black Americans suffer some of the worst heart problems 'Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)' health outcomes due to the increasing prevalence of health risk factors (racism, stress, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, poor diets, little exercise) that lead to CVD.
The AHA report cites that Black Americans suffer some of the worst CVD health outcomes:
*CVD Prevalence: Among people aged 20 and older in the U.S., nearly 60% of Black adults have some type of CVD, including coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and hypertension; that’s compared to about 49% of all U.S. adults who have some type of CVD.
*Heart Failure Burden: Black adults account for over 50% of heart failure hospitalizations among U.S. adults under 50.
*Stroke Disparities: Among all adults in the U.S., the prevalence of stroke is highest among Black women (5.4%) and Black men (4.8%), compared to all women at 2.9% and all men at 3.6%.
*High Blood Pressure Crisis: Black adults in the U.S have some of the highest prevalence of hypertension in the world, with 58.4% of Black women and 57.5% of Black men having high blood pressure. That compares to 50.4% of all U.S. adult men and 43% of all women.
For Black History Month the American Heart Association is encouraging and collaborating with Black-led organizations, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and community leaders to bridge the wide cardiovascular disease gap and improve heart health outcomes; to create and implement culturally relevant solutions to ensure that heart health education reaches those most affected.
The American Heart Association is challenging Black families, schools, and community organizations to take part in its Hands-Only CPR training initiative and join Nation of Lifesavers™. With nine out of every ten cardiac arrests that happen outside of a hospital resulting in death, learning CPR can double or triple a person’s chance of survival. Only 46% of people who suffer from cardiac arrest receive CPR from a bystander, while CPR is 41% less likely if the person is Black.
Think about this Black folks, in 1893 a Black doctor 'surgeon' Daniel Hale Williams performed the first open heart surgery in America. What would Williams think about the present alarming super-high Black heart disease rates? I think he would not be surprised at racism being a contributing risk-factor, however I believe he would be surprised at our own heart-health neglect.
Black folks, as the main organ of our circulatory system our hearts keeps us alive! It pumps blood throughout our body, bringing oxygen to our cells and tissues. We say we love ourselves and don’t the heart symbolize it, yeah we aint been loving it like we should, so let us love our hearts more by taking much better care of it!
So on this last day of Black History Month, let us take a serious moment of silence placing our hands over hearts to feel it beat, take some real deep releasing reflective breaths and make a life-saving commitment to improve heart health in ourselves and in our communities - make this a daily 'heartfulness' practice:
“When we’re engaged with our hearts, the mind slows down and our thoughts become more rational and focused. We now have scientific evidence that the heart sends us emotional and intuitive signals." - Doc Childre, The HeartMath Solution
