Cell Therapy Centers to Treat Heart Patients
Added On : 19th June 2010
DAMMAM A US research firm plans to open two cell therapy centers in the Middle East to treat heart disease patients in the light of the increase of cardiovascular disease in the region.
Increasing economic wealth in the Middle East and North Africa has been accompanied by urbanization. Cardiovascular disease, a corollary to urban life, has been increasing rapidly and is now the regions leading cause of death, accounting for 25 to 45 percent of all deaths, said Dr. Karl E. Groth, Chairman and CEO of Bioheart, a cell therapy research organization whose goals are to enable damaged tissue to be regenerated, and to improve a patients quality of life and reduce health care costs and hospitalizations.
Per capita consumption of fat in Saudi Arabia over the past few decades has increased by 143.3 percent, according to research conducted by Bioheart, which added that the increase in fat consumption in the Kingdom and the Middle East has led to more people suffering from cardiovascular disease and cancer.
In a press statement, Groth said that over the past few decades, daily per capita fat consumption has increased in most countries in the region, ranging from a 13.6 percent increase in the Sudan to a 143.3 percent increase in Saudi Arabia.
A study conducted recently by the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh has revealed that the influx of Western affluence foods over the last three decade, which are rich in fat, meat and refined carbohydrates, has contributed to the increase in breast cancer in Saudi Arabia.
The national nutrition survey of the population of Saudi Arabia showed that per capita energy intake in Saudi Arabia rose from 1801 kcal (kilocalorie referring to one thousand gram calories) in 1971 to 3,082 kcal in 1992, with fat consumption increased from 10 percent to 42 percent during the same period, the research stated.
In the Middle East, ischemic heart disease is the predominant cause of cardiovascular disease, with about three ischemic heart disease deaths for every stroke death, according to Bioheart research. The research also shows that rheumatic heart disease is more prevalent in the Middle East than in the rest of the world and that it remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality. SG
Joe Avancena - Saudi Gazette
