Heart health advances threatened by lifestyle changes, obesity

The Heart and Stroke Foundation warnsnew challenges are emerging in the fight against heart disease.

A new report released for Heart Month looks back at six decades of research and shows survival rates have risen dramatically in the last 60years.

Part of that improvement can be attributed to advancements in technology like the pacemaker which can be as small and thin as atoonie.

• Canada's heart attack death rates declined rapidly after 1994

"[Sixty years ago] half of Canadians died from cardiovascular disease, now it's down to about a quarter of Canadians," said Donna Hastings, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta.

However, there are concerns that lifestyle changes could be threatening those gains.

"Our major threat at the moment is the increased risk of obesity and hence, diabetes," said Dr. Todd Anderson, director of the Libin CardiovascularInstitute of Alberta at the University of Calgary."That number has almost doubled in the last 20 years or so."

• Obesity health strategy in Canada shifts to prevention

Obesity rates in children have tripled in just a few decades. Anderson says kids today are now expected to live shorter lives.

"It's a wake up call really to us individually and to us in our communities that if this continues, we're going to be erasing all of the advancements that we've made in the last 60 years and we don't want that to happen." saidHastings.

Experts say the solution is to encourage physical activity and healthy eating in young people and children.