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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff. From How Stuff Works. Benjamin Franklin

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Speaker 1: famously said nothing certain but death and taxes, and so

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Speaker 1: far he's been half right. Hi, I'm Christian Sager, not

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Speaker 1: Ben Franklin. Spoiler alert, that guy's dead. And this is

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Speaker 1: the brain Stuff where we look at mortality, the big Sleep,

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Speaker 1: the end of the house party called life. Barring some

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Speaker 1: astonishing medical breakthrough, we're all going to croak, you, me,

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Speaker 1: even Nicholas Cage and unfortunately our producer Dylan. But how

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Speaker 1: there are a few ways to approach this question. First,

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Speaker 1: should we look at the deaths in a specific country

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Speaker 1: like the US or say China. While we can pull

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Speaker 1: some interesting statistics from a more narrowly defined study, doing

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Speaker 1: so means we're essentially ignoring the rest of the world.

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Speaker 1: So let's take a shot at the big Cahuna of

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Speaker 1: mortality studies, the Global Statistics on death. In the most

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Speaker 1: recent database available, found just five conditions were responsible for

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Speaker 1: of annual deaths. Can you guess which one led the pack?

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Speaker 1: If you thought something about heart disease, then congratulations, you

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Speaker 1: are correct. You're still going to die, but always remember

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Speaker 1: you died a winner. Cardiovascular diseases wiped out and estimated

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Speaker 1: seventeen point five million people in two thousand twelve, accounting

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Speaker 1: for thirty one percent of all deaths. Of these fatalities,

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Speaker 1: seven point four million were due to coronary heart disease

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Speaker 1: and six point seven million were due to stroke. Specifically,

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Speaker 1: that's s schemic heart disease, wherein there's a reduced blood

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Speaker 1: supply to the heart. The most common cause of schemic

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Speaker 1: heart disease is atherosclerosis. That's where a plaque made of fat, cholesterol, calcium,

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Speaker 1: and other substances builds up within your arteries. Eventually, dis

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Speaker 1: gunk hardens, reducing the amount of blood that can run

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Speaker 1: through your system, and this means less delicious necessary oxygen

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Speaker 1: reaches your organs. While some causes of death, such as AIDS,

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Speaker 1: have declined over time, heart disease is on the rise.

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Speaker 1: Why will. According to the World Health Organization, behavioral factors

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Speaker 1: play a huge role in this affliction. Smoking, drinking too

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Speaker 1: much booze, obesity, and a lack of physical activity can

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Speaker 1: all contribute to the most unpleasant and perhaps final surprise

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Speaker 1: of your life. Fortunately, experts around the globe are tackling

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Speaker 1: this problem together. The member states of WHO that's the

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Speaker 1: World Health Organization are working to achieve the goals created

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Speaker 1: in the oh so suavely named Global Action Plan for

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Speaker 1: the Prevention and Control of Non Communicable Diseases WHO. While

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Speaker 1: the title doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, the concept

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Speaker 1: is worthwhile. In the U s Alone, one out of

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Speaker 1: every four deaths are caused by heart disease, and many

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Speaker 1: people don't recognize the symptoms. Sure, one day we may

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Speaker 1: be able to replace our bodies or upload our minds

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Speaker 1: to the Internet, but for now, the one body you

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Speaker 1: have is the only one you're going to get, so

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Speaker 1: for now, take care of it. Check out the brainstuff

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Speaker 1: channel on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands

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Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.