Cancer inches ahead of heart disease among Latinos
Lewis DiuguidA grim statistic should worry Latinos as well as other Americans.
Cancer has jumped ahead of heart disease as the No. 1 killer among Latinos in the United States. But that may also foretell what’s to come for the rest of the population, The Associated Press reported.
Death rates for heart disease have fallen faster than those for cancer, pushing cancer to the front.
Researchers for the American Cancer Society found that 29,935 Hispanics died of cancer and 29,611 of heart disease in 2009. That is the first year that cancer deaths overtook deaths from heart disease in that ethnic group.
Part of it is attributed to the younger Latino population compared with other U.S. ethnic and racial groups. Most heart disease deaths hit people at least age 65. Most Latinos in the U.S. are under age 55.
But the shift should alarm people to do more to clean up the environment to remove cancer risks and to eat better and exercise more.
Richard L Wagner
8 months agoI don’t have any data or proof readily available, but I had always heard that diabetes was the number one killer among Latinos.