The U.S. celebrates its 60th anniversary with the sobering news that black women who have high blood pressure by the age of 35 have up to three times the risk of stroke by the time they reach middle age compared to their peers without high blood pressure. Heart Month has begun. Additionally, black women already have nearly twice the risk of stroke as white women and are 50% more likely to have high blood pressure.

As a Black female physician, I am tired of reading report after report and study that reveals that certain groups of people (often people who look like me) have worse health outcomes than their white counterparts. I’ve been doing it. The status quo has been unacceptable for a long time, and yet by failing to improve outcomes we are sending a signal that we accept the status quo.

Every February, it’s hard to escape the coverage of disparities in cardiovascular disease outcomes on morning news networks, podcasts, and newspapers. Don’t get me wrong. While it is important to acknowledge new research that highlights poor outcomes or other disparities, simply stating these statistics is not enough. We also need to discuss and implement new and innovative strategies to reduce the impact of cardiovascular disease in America.

Let’s start with basic prevention. Traditionally in cardiology, prevention is divided into three different categories: Prevention of heart disease in people with risk factors (primary prevention), prevention of further heart attacks and strokes in people who have had a heart attack or stroke (secondary prevention), and prevention of death and disease. -Reduced lifespan due to heart attack and stroke (tertiary prevention).

Fundamental prevention is different. It focuses on preventing people from developing risk factors for heart disease (high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, lack of exercise).

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the main cause of cardiovascular disease, in which plaque builds up within the arteries and spreads to parts of the body such as the heart (heart attack), brain (stroke), and legs (peripheral blood vessels). This includes diseases that cause poor blood flow. arterial disease).

It is important to emphasize that managing risk factors is important, but to be most effective you should focus on: Prevention of risk factors For heart disease. Case in point: Studies show that even if people with high blood pressure are treated with drugs that lower their risk of future heart disease, they are still twice as likely to develop heart disease as people who have never been diagnosed with high blood pressure. has been shown to be high. Start with

We need to reach people at a young age, before they are diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.I haven’t proposed. not treated People who have cardiovascular disease or are at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. My mission as a cardiologist is to care for people with heart disease. Rather, my point is that cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, and we need to do better. To prevent This is to prevent people from becoming a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in the first place.

Second, for maximum impact, you need to address the fact that your target audience isn’t even within your clinic. A 2019 poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 45% of adults ages 19 to 29 don’t even have a primary care physician.

where are they? They are in the community. They can be found in grocery stores, gyms, places of worship, barbershops, college campuses, and online. Approximately 84% of people in the same demographic use social media. We need to implement federally funded programs to screen for risk factors in the communities where these people are located. It is very common to have high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol without symptoms. We cannot continue to test only people who encounter our health care system. We know too much to keep doing too little.

Finally, once a strategy is identified and implemented, policies are needed to keep stakeholders accountable and funded. We need federal investment to make an impact.

Not all communities are the same. Therefore, regionally and regionally customized screening strategies are needed that target regions known to have the worst heart disease outcomes. Work with health authorities to provide the financial support needed to test for risk factors and hold them accountable.

Once you are provided with the information, you can choose to make lifestyle changes or find a primary care physician to prevent the development of your risk factors. Some may argue that national prevention programs are expensive. But so is our current healthcare system. We have not won the battle against cardiovascular disease. We are losing it along with our loved ones.

If we truly honor the spirit of American Heart Month, I will spend the next few years reading less about the heartbreaking disparities that affect people like me and increasing our risk of cardiovascular disease at a population level. You will spend your time reading about innovative strategies to prevent the agent.

Nkiru Osude, MD, MSc, is a cardiology fellow at Duke Cardiology in Durham, North Carolina. She is also a Public Her Voice Fellow for the OpEd Project and AcademyHealth.