122 THE CHINA STUDY
pushed aside. Surgery, drugs, electronic devices and new diagnostic
tools have stolen the spotlight.
We now have coronary bypass surgery, where a healthy artery is
"pasted" over a diseased artery, thereby bypassing the most dangerous
plaque on the artery. The ultimate surgery, of course, is the heart trans-
plant, which even utilizes an artificial heart on occasion. We also have
a procedure that doesn't require cracking the chest plate open, called
coronary angioplasty, where a small balloon is inflated in a narrowed,
diseased artery, squishing the plaque back against the wall, opening up
the passage for increased blood flow. We have defibrillators to revive
hearts, pacemakers and precise imaging techniques so that we can ob-
serve individual arteries without having to expose the heart.
The past fifty years have truly been a celebration of chemicals and
technology (as opposed to diet and prevention). In summarizing the
initial widespread research on heart disease, one doctor recently high-
lighted the mechanical:
It was hoped that the strength of science and engineering devel-
oped after World War II could be applied to this battle [against
heart disease] .... The enormous advances in mechanical engineer-
ing and electronics that had been stimulated by the war seemed to
lend themselves particularly well to the study of the cardiovascu-
lar system ....^4
Some great advances have been made, to be sure, which may account
for the fact that our death rate from heart disease is a full 58% lower
than what it was in 1950.^2 A 58 % reduction in the death rate seems a
great victory for chemicals and technology. One of the greatest strides
has come from better emergency room treatment of heart attack vic-
tims. In 1970 , if you were older than Sixty-five years, had a heart attack
and were lucky enough to make it to the hospital alive, you had a 38%
chance of dying. Today, if you make it to the hospital alive, you only
have a 15% chance of dying. The hospital's emergency response is much
better, and consequently huge numbers of lives are being spared.^2
In addition, the number of people smoking has steadily been decreas-
ing,2 7 ,28 which in turn lowers our death rate from heart disease. Between
hospital advances, mechanical devices, drug discoveries, lower smoking
rates and more surgical options, there clearly seems to be much to cheer
about. We've made progress, so it seems.
Or have we?