As humans, at some point each and every one of us will pass away.
Nonetheless, we can do much to extend our lives by practicing healthy
lifestyles, making good decisions regarding activities that may result
in bodily harm, and making regular appointments to receive medical
check-ups for conditions we may be predisposed to. That said, lack of
education, medical access, and financial resources alike leave many
people in the developing world more prone to certain causes of death,
while an obesity epidemic and increasingly sedentary lifestyles
prematurely takes more and more lives in the developed world. That said,
below we look at the ten leading causes of death worldwide.
10. Hypertensive Heart Disease (1.1 million deaths; 2% of all deaths)
Hypertensive
heart disease is a series of heart problems caused by high blood
pressure.
Coronary heart disease is one such problem that causes the small blood
vessels
supplying blood and oxygen to the heart to narrow. The other is heart
failure, wherein the heart
loses the ability to pump oxygen rich blood around the body. The last is
the
enlarging and weakening of heart muscles, thereby inhibiting the heart
from pumping
the blood to the rest of the body, according to the US National Library
of Medicine. In America, 1 in 3 adults has hypertensive
heart disease, according to the Center for Disease and Control and
Prevention
(CDC). Globally, according to the World Heart
Federation (WHF), one billion people have high blood pressure
(hypertension),
and two thirds of these are found in developing countries where medical
access is harder to come by. In America alone, in 2013 there were
360,000 deaths
linked to hypertensive heart disease, according to the CDC. Globally,
hypertension causes half of all
deaths from stroke and heart disease, according to the World Health
Organization
(WHO).
9. Vehicular Accidents (1.3 million deaths; 2.2% of all deaths)
In 2013, there
were 1.25 million deaths from road accidents according to the World
Health Organization (WHO). Such vehicular accidents are the leading
cause of death
among 15 to 29 year old youths around the world. Injuries sustained from
road
accidents are also the ninth leading causes of death across all age
groups
worldwide. In low income countries, there
were 24.1 road and highway deaths for every 100,000 people. For middle
income countries, there
were 18.4 such deaths for every 100,000 people, and in developing
countries there
were 9.2 of the same. Africa had the
highest accident fatalities of any continent, at 26.6 for every 100,000
people, while the European
region, at 9.3, had the lowest rates according to the WHO.
8. Diabetes (1.5 million deaths; 2.7% of all deaths)
Diabetes mellitus occurs
when the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin, or the body fails to
effectively utilize the insulin it produces. Insulin hormone regulates
blood
sugar in the body. The best way to ward
off diabetes is by maintaining normal weight, and avoiding unhealthy
lifestyle habits such as smoking and inactivity. In 2014, according to
the WHO, the diabetes prevalence worldwide was 9 percent
for adults aged 18 years and older. In 2012, there were 1.5 million
deaths from
diabetes, and 80 percent of these deaths occurred in low- and
middle-income
countries. According to the American Diabetes
Association (ADA), in 2010 diabetes was the 7th leading cause of death in
America. In 2011, there were 4.6 million deaths from diabetes worldwide, according to the International Diabetes Federation.
7. Diarrhea (1.5 million deaths; 2.7% of all deaths)
Diarrhea causes
death by depleting fluids from the body, thus resulting in dehydration.
According to the CDC, it kills 2,195 children daily, more than AIDS,
malaria, and measles
combined. In 2012, diarrhea killed 1.5
million people worldwide, according to WHO, and it counts among the
leading causes of death globally, according
to the CDC. Poor hygiene and sanitation, and
drinking contaminated water, contribute to 88 percent of all
diarrhea-related
deaths per CDC reports. Diarrhea can also be spread through the use of
contaminated
utensils, foods, or objects that have been in contact with contaminated
stool. Sufficient
sanitation, proper human waste disposal, and safe water consumption help
to prevent diarrhea. Worldwide, the diarrhea
incidence is 2.5 billion yearly, with the bulk of these infections being
seen in Africa and South
Asia according to UNICEF.
6. HIV & AIDS (1.5 million deaths; 2.7% of all deaths)
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) virus attacks the immune
system, which itself acts to shield the human body from illness.
Consequently, an HIV-infected person is
easily affected by all manner of diseases and infections, as the virus
destroys T-helper white
blood cells. With time, HIV advances into Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS), wherein the immune system becomes too weak
to fight off the infections and diseases attacking the body. In 2012 and
2013, according
to the WHO, there were 1.5 million HIV-related deaths globally, which
accounted for 2.7
percent of all deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for 70 percent
of people
living with HIV globally, according to AVERT, a UK-based HIV/AIDS
research and educational charity. However, the advent of anti-retroviral
therapies has
helped reduce HIV infections worldwide in recent years. According to the
WHO, such therapy mitigated an estimated 7.6 million deaths between
1995 and 2013.
5. Lung, Tracheal, & Bronchial Cancers (1.6 million deaths; 2.9% of all deaths)
Cancer is caused by uncontrolled growth of
cells which invade and spread around the body, often resulting in death.
All forms of cancer combined result in 8.2 million deaths, and account
for 13 percent of all global deaths that occur, according to the WHO.
Lung,
trachea, and bronchus cancers alone caused 1.6 million deaths in 2012, a
significant increase from
1.2 million such deaths in the year 2000. In the United States, according to the CDC, more people die from lung
cancer than any other form of cancer, and smoking
is responsible for 85 percent of lung cancer cases in that country. There were 157,423 deaths from lung cancer in
2012 in the US alone according to the CDC. According to the
US National Cancer Institute, 60 percent of the world’s new cancer cases happen
in Asia, Africa, Central, and South America, and 70 percent of global cancer deaths occur in those same regions as well.
4. Lower Respiratory Infections (3.1 million deaths; 5.5% of all deaths)
Lower respiratory infections (LRIs), inclusive of pneumonia,
tuberculosis, influenza, bronchitis, bronchiolitis and others, accounted
for 3.1
million deaths globally, according to a 2012 WHO report. For LRIs, 1
death in every 100
deaths is seen among children below 15 years of age. Pollution of indoor
and outdoor air by tobacco
smoke, solid fuel use, and poor hygiene may all result in LRIs. Past
studies by the WHO reported that 36 percent of
LRIs are caused by solid fuel pollution (such as firewood smoke), and 1
percent of respiratory illnesses
are caused by outdoor air pollution. In
Europe, indoor air pollution from solid fuel use has been cited as
accounting
for 4.9 percent of all deaths, and 3.1 percent of losses in
Disability-Adjusted Life
Years for children aged less than 4 years old. LRI
diseases like pneumonia resulted in between 1.2 and 1.5 million children under the age of 5 dying,
of whom 99 percent are found in developing countries, those statistics according to Health and
Ecosystems: Analysis of Linkages.
3. COPD (3.15 million deaths; 5.6% of all deaths)
Chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is often concurrent with
chronic bronchitis or emphysema, is a
chronic lung disease that causes the airways in the lung to inflame and
thicken,
resulting in shortness of breath. According to the American Lung
Association, COPD
has no cure, but with treatment it’s preventable and manageable. 11
million people in the US suffer from it,
and tobacco inhalation, air pollution at home and in the workplace are
some of the leading causes of COPD. According to a 2012 WHO
report, COPD was responsible for 3.15 million deaths worldwide,
equivalent to
5.6 percent of all deaths. In 2011, COPD
was the third leading cause of death in the US according to the CDC.
Across the Atlantic in Great Britain,
it accounts for over 25,000 deaths yearly, according to the Health and
Safety
Executive. Still, most of COPD deaths occur in low- and middle-income
countries,
according to the WHO.
2. Stroke (6.7 million deaths; 11.9% of all deaths)
Stroke is a life threatening medical condition that occurs when the
blood supply to a part of the brain is cut off.
When this happens, brain cells lack oxygen, and begin to die, and the
control
of the parts of the body coordinated by that section of the brain area
is then lost. In 2012, according to the World
Health Organization, strokes caused 6.7 million deaths globally. In the
US alone, the CDC
reports that annually the condition affects 795,000 people, and 130,000
of these die. According
to the WHF, 6 million people die of stroke annually, and 5 million of
those that do survive are left disabled to some degree. The condition is
also the second leading
cause of death among people over 60 years old, according to the WHO.
There are more
deaths from stroke annually than those from AIDS, Tuberculosis, and
Malaria
combined.
1. Ischaemic Heart Disease (7.4 million deaths; 13.2% of all deaths)
Ischemic Heart Disease
(IHD), or Coronary heart disease, occurs when the heart’s blood supply
is
blocked due to the buildup of fatty substances and cholesterol in the
coronary
arteries, causing their free-flowing passages to narrow. Such blockages
inhibit oxygen and nutrient supplies to the heart muscles, hampering the
functioning
of the heart. Eventually, the part of
the heart deprived of oxygen and nutrients dies, resulting in a heart
attack. Yearly, the disease results in 7.4 million deaths globally,
according to a WHO 2012 study. In the
United Kingdom alone, there are 73,000 deaths from IHD annually,
according to the National Health
Service, while in the United States there are over 370,000 IHD deaths
annually, according to the CDC. In the Middle East and North Africa
between
1990 and 2010, premature deaths from IHD increased by 44 percent,
according to a
World Bank report. Smoking, the consumption of high cholesterol foods,
stress, high blood
pressure, diabetes, abdominal obesity, lack of exercise, and excess
alcohol can all contribute to the development of Ischemic Heart Disease.
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