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15
Apart from socalled " nervous strain " and " pressure of living
it has been suggested with more and more evidence (none of it howev(
conclusive) that dietary factors may be of considerable importance bot
in coronary disease and also in other degenerative diseases of the hea
and blood vessels. Overweight in itself has been known for man
years to be associated with degeneration of the heart and blood vessel
Last year I stated that it would be interesting to see if the derationin
of butter and the increased availability of eggs had any effect on tl
incidence of coronary heart disease. It is unwise to rely much o
the figures for any one year, even in a borough of this size, but the tab
above does indicate some figures of interest insofar as 1954 w;
concerned. Thus the total deaths from coronary disease increased by 2
while the deaths from all other heart and circulatory diseases decrease
by 57, giving a net diminution in the total deaths from heart an
circulation causes of 30. Nevertheless in spite of this, taking the aj
group 45 to 65, the total of heart and circulation deaths went up froi
140 to 176 compared with the previous year, and those from coronai
disease from 84 to 99. The percentage of persons in this age grou
dying of heart and circulation diseases increased from 5.6 to 7.9 an
that of coronary disease from 3.4 to 4.4.
Deaths under age 65
Deaths under the age of 65 of course have particular importanc
in relation to loss of productive manpower, and with an ageir
population the problem of manpower and earning capacity becomi
increasingly serious. Although during 1954 the proportion of thos
who died under the age of 45 still further decreased, namely froi
8.9 to 8.3 percent, those dying under the age of 65 increased — froi
29.5 to 31.5 percent. It is a simple arithmetical calculation therefoi
that those dying between the age of 45 and the age of 65 were last ye:
23.2 percent of the total deaths as compared with only 20.6 the previoi
year, an increase of 2.6, or over 12 percent. It is desirable therefore 1
examine the deaths in this age grouping rather carefully. There wei
320 males and 197 females (these figures are almost exactly the san
as in the previous year when they were 322 and 192 respectively, tl
difference in percentage being due to the decrease in the total numbi
of deaths from all ages in the year — from 2,502 to 2,231). Of tl
males the main increases in the 45.65 age group deaths last year wei
5 in cancer of the lung, 12 in other cancers, 12 in coronary disease, an
13 in other heart diseases. On the other hand there were decreases i
vascular lesions of the nervous system (8), in pneumonia and bronchit
(16) and in digestive ulcers (7). In females of the same age group thei
were 20 more deaths from vascular lesions of the nervous systen
while there were 10 less deaths from pneumonia or bronchitis. It seen
therefore that in spite of the year being good for " chests," it was, as f;
as this age group was concerned, particularly bad for diseases of tl
heart and circulation.