Current estimates show that more than 70 million Americans suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease. For 150,000 Americans annually, the first and only symptom of heart disease is a fatal heart attack. Many of those who suffer a fatal heart attack have average or unremarkable cholesterol levels, normal stress or exercise treadmill tests and few, if any, of the major risk factors. The early atherosclerosis is detected, the greater the chance it can be slowed, or stopped or possibly even reversed. The American Cancer Society reports that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among men and women.
More people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined.
Inn 2000, approximately 164,000 new lung cancer cases were diagnosed and there were an estimated 157,000 lung cancer deaths. However, according to the American Cancer Society, few lung cancers are detected at this early stage. The American Cancer Society reports that colorectal cancers are the third most common cancers in men and women. In 2000, an estimated 131,000 people developed colorectal cancer and an estimated 56,000 deaths occurred due to colorectal cancer. Osteoporosis is responsible for more than 1.5 million fractures per year.