About 62 percent of Chinese over 40 suffer from various heart diseases or heart-related diseases, and 80 percent of them do not know much about how to protect the heart, according to a World Heart Federation survey.

A total of 2,400 people from China, the US, Germany, Spain, Canada, Argentina, Mexico and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea took part in the survey, which aims to focus global attention on the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Statistics show more than 40 million people in China suffer from cardiovascular disease, which accounts for half the total deaths in China. About 75 percent of survivors are no longer able to work and four percent are severely disabled.

The survey shows people do not pay enough attention to protecting the heart.

Only 50 percent of those surveyed believed "a healthy lifestyle is very important to protect the heart". The survey, sponsored by the German Bayer Company, was carried out ahead of World Heart Day which falls on the last Sunday in September every year.

"The incidence of cardiovascular disease has risen by 50.3 percent in the past decade," said Hu Dayi, an expert on cardiovascular diseases.

Each year 2.6 million people die of cerebral apoplexy and myocardial infarction in China, which means cardiovascular diseases claim one life every 12 seconds in the country, Hu said.

Cardiovascular disease today has the highest growth and recurrence rate of any disease in China, experts warned.

Experts called on people to immediately adopt a more healthy lifestyle, meaning no smoking, a more balanced diet and working out to reduce weight, so as to prevent the onset of cardiovascular disease.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2006)