Heart disease on a surprising downturn in America.

USA Today is reporting some interesting and surprising news: Somehow, despite our ever-increasing waistlines, we have succeeded in dying less frequently from heart disease and stroke. According to the article, “heart disease death rates dropped 25.8% between 1999 and 2005″ while “stroke deaths dropped 24.4%.”

This is remarkably good news for a nation already in crisis, however Mr. Sternberg tempers these favorable tidings with a point we should all keep in mind: We’re still fat, and fat people go with heart disease and stroke like celebrities and overdoses, so don’t plan on any permanence to this trend.

Due to our unfortunate mortality, this news invariably begs the question, “What is killing Americans?”

According to the latest data from the CDC (2004), it’s still… heart disease and stroke shuffling us off this mortal coil. What does this mean? It means we’re fighting a losing battle, and as long as modern medicine continues to increase our life expectancy we’re going to see people die of heart attacks and stroke simply by virtue of living long enough to have our tickers wear out, which isn’t a necessarily horrible fate so long as Americans can acknowledge the fact that we’ve all got to go sometime.