Report urges Canadians to focus on health basics as 80% of premature heart disease and stroke preventable

More than six million people across Canada are living with heart disease or stroke, according to a new report highlighting troubling trends and what individuals can do about them.

About one in five deaths in Canada is caused by heart disease or stroke — or roughly a death every seven minutes, Heart & Stroke estimated in its annual report on Tuesday.

The report also flagged that the number of Canadian adults living with high blood pressure — the top risk factor for stroke and a major one for heart disease — has increased each year since 2000, with more than 8.2 million adults diagnosed with the medical condition.

Almost 80 per cent of premature heart disease and stroke can be prevented through healthy behaviours and effective management of medical risk factors, like hypertension or high blood pressure and diabetes, the charity said.

Canadian adults are doing better in some measures, such as declining smoking rates, but diet, physical activity and stress seem to be a struggle for some.

When it comes to lifestyle risk factors, the report’s authors point to Statistics Canada data suggesting nearly eight in 10 adults and youth eat fruits and vegetables fewer than five times a day.  Studies have shown that frequency is a useful measure of diet quality as its considered a proxy of servings or quantity of fruits and vegetables that Canadians eat at a population level.

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Abby Langer, a registered dietitian in Toronto who was not involved in the report, said she was shocked at how low that intake was.

“The recommendation to eat more fruits and vegetables is so basic,” Langer said. “I think people are looking for something novel, for a quick fix. They just don’t have the basics down.”

While the report’s figures on nutrition were compiled before Canada’s cost of living crisis really took off, Langer said she thinks affordability is a barrier many people might face when it comes to eating more fruits and vegetables. It’s why she often recommends frozen fruits and vegetables that last longer and come at a lower price point.

Beyond diet, the report’s authors said smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disability, killing 46,000 Canadians each year. In a positive move, smoking rates among adults have plummeted from 50 per cent in 1965 to 11 per cent in 2024.

However, the report’s authors note that Canada has some of the highest youth vaping rates in the world, with more than one in four students in Grade 12 saying they vaped. Vaping, the authors added, is not harmless.

Free way to make physical activity ‘catchy’

Between 2022 and 2024, less than half of Canadian adults (46 per cent) got the recommended weekly physical activity, and youth aged 12-17 moved far less (21 per cent) than five years prior, when more than one-third (36 per cent) met the recommendation.

To turn habits around, governments should follow the same tactics used in campaigns to decrease smoking, such as boosting taxes on unhealthy products and increasing education in schools on nutrition, suggested Dr. Guillaume Paré, a professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, whose research is funded by Heart & Stroke.

As for “non-modifiable risks” — the ones that cannot be controlled — about half of the risk of dying from heart disease is genetic, the report’s authors said.

Family history is doubly important , Paré said, since families and communities also pass down both healthy and unhealthy lifestyle habits.

He pointed to the example of Parkrun, a volunteer-run organization that sets up free, weekly, times five-kilometre runs or walks, which started in the U.K. and has spread globally.

“They’re not even initiatives that were funded by our government or the Ministry of Health, but they’re just catchy,” Paré said. “They create a sense of community.”

To combat the risk factors, Heart & Stroke encourages individuals to:

• Take medications as prescribed.

• Limit alcohol if you drink.

• Talk to your health-care provider if you have a family history of premature heart disease or stroke.

The group also gave recommendations to health-care providers, such as directing patients to credible information.