text: Luxembourg Times - Archives - Heart disease no longer the biggest killer of men in Luxembourg
  Heart disease claims fewer lives in men in Luxembourg than cancer, a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has revealed.
  (AFP) Heart disease claims fewer lives in men in Luxembourg than cancer, a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has revealed.
  The report, published in the European Heart Journal and covering 52 countries, noted Cardiovascular disease (CVD), a collection heart and blood vessel conditions that can lead to heart attack and stroke, remained the single biggest killer.
  It claims over four million lives in Europe per year, representing nearly half of all deaths.
  However, it noted a generally positive trend with Luxembourg among a group of predominantly high-income nations including Belgium, Denmark, France, Israel, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and San Marino where heart disease was now claiming fewer lives than cancer in men, and in Denmark, for the first time in Europe, also in women.
  This was because "fewer people develop cardiovascular disease, and in those who do, fewer die from it," said study co-author Nick Townsend of Oxford University, adding it was likely due to the adoption of healthier lifestyles and better medicine.
  The Cardiovascular disease (CVD) death rate for men and women of all ages in Russia, for example, was six times higher than in France.
  In 2010, 915 Russian men and 517 women died of CVD per 100,000 of the population, compared to 150 and 87 per 100,000 in France, which is used as a reference since it has Europe's lowest mortality rate in the 75-79 age group.
  "But we still need to focus more on healthy life expectancy, where there are still huge gains to be made, rather than just life expectancy per se."