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As stated in previous Reports, neither drug addiction nor alcoholism
appears to be of real moment in this Borough at present but,
unquestionably, the problem of drug addiction is becoming
increasingly more serious nationally and, as a health authority, we
must be on our guard against its appearance locally.
Heart Disease
Again following the national trend, diseases of the heart were
responsible for nearly 32% of all deaths in the Borough during
1967 and, when taken in conjunction with circulatory disease, the
percentage rises to almost 36. Besides being the reason for a
prodigious loss of man-working capacity in the United Kingdom
amounting, it is estimated, to some 12 million week days per year,
cardiovascular and atherosclerotic diseases, as a group, account for
more, deaths than any other single cause and. therefore, constitute
the greatest possible challenge to preventive medicine.
Nearly three quarters of all deaths in the Borough from heart
disease resulted from coronary insufficiency and, of these, 60%
occurred in males of whom nearly two fifths died before reaching
the age of 65 years.
Coronary occlusion is responsible not only for physical damage
but also for the psychological chaos which often accompanies the
victim's attack; personally, because he is anxious and afraid that
a second attack would be fatal and, family wise, because his
spouse, who considers herself the custodian of the family's health,
feels in some way responsible and therefore harbours a guilty
complex.
Epidemiologically, heart disease is proving to be modern society's
greatest menace for it ranges over the whole span of life, from
genotypic conditions, through those acquired as residual results of
rheumatic and other diseases, to types concomitant with old age.
Surgery is gaining a considerable measure of success in connection
with congenital heart disease (which causes a large number of
infantile deaths) and also in respect of the acquired disabilities but
preventive action is having little or no demonstrable effect. This
may be due, in part, to the fact that preventive measures lack the
glamour of the curative procedures and perhaps to the dearth of
suitable educative material being dynamically presented.
In the light of present day knowledge, there are a number of
aetiological factors which are thought to have a bearing on the
increase in heart conditions, especially within the middle-aged
groups. One of these concerns the intake of saturated fats which,
with excess carbohydrates, is being reliably linked with ischaemic
heart disease. Chances of angina were doubled in people who were