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Statement by the President on the Increasing Incidence of Heart Disease.

February 08, 1947

THE HEALTH of the Nation is a matter of paramount concern to all our citizens. Good health is, after all, a priceless asset to the Nation and to the individual. Perhaps it is our greatest national asset.

This country was spared many of the ravages of war which have left in less favored countries a heritage of disease and the ills of pestilence and famine, inevitably following in the wake of war.

We have been inconvenienced, but the national health has not suffered because of short rations. But we do have a health problem which arises out of the increased tempo of our modern American life.

All thoughtful citizens must be alarmed by the increasing incidence of heart disease. The physician knows, and the rank and file of our citizens should understand, that heart disease is now the leading cause of death. It is an alarming portent that 400,000 Americans will die of heart disease this year, and it is distressing to know that 1 out of every 20 persons now suffers from serious diseases of the heart and blood vessels.

In the face of these grim facts, I appeal to all my countrymen to cooperate with every agency and organization and every individual doctor in fighting the present day national peril--heart disease.

Harry S Truman, Statement by the President on the Increasing Incidence of Heart Disease. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232659

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