First responders face higher risk of heart attack and diet-driven diseases
TAMPA - The country’s 2 million firefighters and law enforcement officers are at a disproportionately high risk for premature, life-threatening diet-driven disease.
Firefighters are three times more likely to experience a cardiovascular event than those in the general workforce, while law enforcement officers experience their first heart attack nearly 20 years earlier than the general population.
Step One Foods, a cardiologist-led company dedicated to improving heart health through nutrition, has committed to helping first responders reduce those risks through participation in the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities – a nationwide call to action to end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases.
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"You think that firefighters die because of smoke inhalation or injury on the job – and that does happen. But the number one reason firefighters die is heart disease. They drop dead of heart attacks. And far ahead of their time," said Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, the Step One Foods cardiologist. "These are individuals that are taking care of us every single day. We need to do a better job taking care of them."
A St. Pete police officer, and the union president of Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association President says the tough job creates many diet-driven difficulties.
"In a day where you're getting 20 calls during your ten-hour shift, you may not have the time to sit there and eat a well-balanced meal and go to a microwave and warm up your leftover chicken. You may just have to go to a drive thru or go to a gas station, shove a Snickers in your mouth and go to the next call," said Officer Jon Vasquez, of Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association.
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Vasquez also spoke about how the high levels of stress and increasing and decreasing heart rates over the years can contribute to heart attacks.
Dr. Klodas tells FOX 13 "in 30 days it’s possible to significantly improve cholesterol results." One of her patients, a fire chief in Minnesota, had a message for his fellow law enforcement officers, too.
"We go into this profession to have each other's backs, to take care of each other. It seems to me this would be a place where we should start to help each other find the next path. To have a long-time career and a life after retirement. That can all be possible if we just take care of ourselves in a different way," said St. Louis Park Fire Chief Steve Koering.
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