Heart Disease

[nidave]

I have just been watching an adver from the british heart foundation which claims heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK. I came to think "Does Heart disese kill more people that natural causes?"

Anyone know the answer? If you there there is a inherent design flaw in us that makes disease (not just heart disease) a bigger killer tan reaching the end of your natural life.

[marksi]

Or it could be argued that dying of heart disease IS dying of a natural cause.

[cdd]

Or it could be argued that dying of heart disease IS dying of a natural cause.

No arguing about it... heart disease is natural.

(Although it can be brought about by human activities -- but so can almomst anything!)

[nidave]

What i mean is coming to the end of your natural life!

[marksi]

[Dr Lobster*]

What i mean is coming to the end of your natural life!

what happens when you come to the end of your natural life?

you tend to die of organ failure of one kind or another - you don't just drop down dead when you get to 80.

when they say on the news that somebody has died of natural causes, it will be an illness common with old age, such as some cancers, pneumonia and respiratory and immune system failures etc etc

you never die of 'old age' directly, but rather a condition related to it, such as those above (there are many many more)

[tillyoshea]

Deaths are generally classified as coming about through "Criminal Acts", "Misadventure", or "Natural Causes", the latter being pretty-much a catch-all category for any disease-related death.

There are other classifications which are less commonly used, such as "Unknown Cause", and one for people killed in wars, the name of which I can't just bring to mind.

"Heart Disease" is claimed to be a big killer because (in this context) it's such a broad term that it incorporates many, many conditions. It's a similar idea to the way all cancer deaths tend to be put together in one box, when that's not really a terribly helpful thing to do either.