The Northern Territory and Queensland outback have the highest death rates from heart disease in the country — while Sydney’s leafy North Shore has the lowest rate.
The Heart Foundation mapped the incidence of heart disease and found Queensland is the nation’s heart disease hot spot with 8 regions in the nation’s top 20 for deaths from the condition.
Nearly half the population of Tasmania has high blood pressure and it is the cholesterol capital of the nation, the analysis of Australia’s heart disease risks has found.
The state also boast the nation’s highest rate of obesity with 34.2 per cent of the Tasmanians carrying too many kilos, a further 35 per cent are overweight.
The local government area of Northern Midlands in Tasmania has the highest cholesterol rates in the country followed by La Trobe ranking number 2, and Dorset and George Town both at equal sixth place.
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The City of Melbourne has emerged is the nation’s high blood pressure capital but residents of the region Melbourne-Inner South are among the least likely to die from heart disease in the state.
The local government area of Melbourne comes out as number one for blood pressure readings in the nation followed by Yarra (ranks5) and Glenelg (ranks 6)
Still reeling from the floods that devastated their town and cattle properties, Cloncurry residents have a new woe after being identified as having the local government area with the highest heart disease death rate in Queensland and the third highest in the nation.
While Queensland has 8 regions in the top 20, NSW, the biggest state, has just five, Tasmania three, Western Austraukan two, the Northern Territory one, and Victoria none.
Residents of Sydney’s leafy northern suburbs are the least likely to die from heart disease in the nation while those in the state’s central west have a much higher risk of death.
And it appears the size of your income matters more than your blood pressure and cholesterol readings when it comes to surviving heart disease.
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The the nation’s top five regions with the lowest heart related hospitalisations are in Sydney.
North Sydney and Hornsby top the list followed by the Northern Beaches, Ryde, Eastern Suburbs and Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury.
The data shows the central west NSW town of Gilgandra has the highest death rate from heart disease in NSW followed by Walgett, Tenterfield and Narrabri.
The top five heart disease mortality hotspots in and around Sydney by local government area are Hawkesbury, Campbelltown, Penrith, Blacktown and Cumberland.
NSW boasts the four regions with the highest obesity levels in the nation.
The Far West and Orana have the nation’s highest obesity ranking, Riverina is number 2, New England and North West number 3, the Central West number 4 and, the Murray number 7.
The advantaged areas of Walkerville and Unley are among the top ten heart disease death hotspot regions in South Australia a map of the killer disease shows.
But The Coorong, which has the nation’s second highest rate of death from heart disease, tops the state.
Residents of The Coorong have high rates of physical inactivity and obesity which are key risk factors for heart disease.
Heart Foundation CEO John Kelly says heart disease hotspot areas have a large proportion of residents with significant disadvantage who have difficulty accessing services.
“This disadvantage includes a person’s access to education, employment, housing, transport, affordable healthy food and social support” he said.
Heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death taking over 18,000 lives a year and millions of Australians have key risk factors for the disease but most are unaware it increases their chance of having a heart attack.
Two thirds of Australians are overweight or obese, six million have high blood pressure, 5.6 million have high cholesterol, 2.5 million smoke daily and two in three do not do enough exercise.
News Corp and the Heart Foundation are calling on the federal government to have Medicare fund a Heart Health Check for all Australians aged over 45 and indigenous Australians aged over 35 to cut the death rate.
This check up will look at a person’s blood pressure, cholesterol, lifestyle factors and smoking status and estimate their risk of having a heart attack in the next five years.
If every middle aged Australian had this check up its estimated we could prevent 76,500 heart attacks in the next five years and save the economy $ 1.5 billion.
Brisbane GP Dr Alison Piper an expert in lifestyle medicine says it is important for Australians who want to avoid a heart attack to “know their figure limits” for key health risk factors.
Their BMI should be below 25, blood pressure below 130/80, total cholesterol below 5. fasting blood sugar below 5.5, they need to exercise for 150 minutes a week, do resistance exercise 2-3 times a week and eat at least five serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit per day.
In the mean time Australians can go the Heart Foundation’s website and check for themselves if they are at risk of a heart attack by using the Heart Age calculator.