Not too surprising perhaps, but the National Board of Health and Welfare, in its report providing national guidelines for heart healthcare , makes it clear that those working in heart healthcare in Sweden should put more effort into making people stop smoking, eat more healthily and exercise more.

The board says that 6 out of 10 heart attacks could have been avoided , which has a knock on effect of lowering the cost to healthcare.

In a separate study, the risk of heart attack amongst middle aged men in Sweden has halved since the sixties. Research carried out in Gothenburg amongst fifty year old men showed that a reduction in numbers of those who smoked had a positive effect on reducing the number of heart attacks.

A Heart attack is still the most common form of death amongst men in Sweden, but the risk has gone down.

Source: By Sveriges Radio 2008