Planet Heart ― How an Unhealthy Environment Leads to Heart Disease

We’ve all heard the risk factors for cardiovascular disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, stress, and a sedentary lifestyle. But what about our environment? Despite almost 500 recent studies that show the links between air and water quality, biodiversity, and heart health, a poor environment as a critical cardiovascular risk factor has largely been ignored. In Planet Heart, cardiologist Francois Reeves aims to redress this imbalance with an incisive and authoritative look at the subject. Why did North America experience an explosion of cardiovascular disease in the mid-20th century? Why are people in China, who were until recently protected from cardiovascular disease, now suffering a surge of heart attacks? Why are there more heart attacks during episodes of smog? Why would living near an urban green space halve the difference in cardiac mortality between the rich and poor? In his lively, accessible text, Reeves not only sheds light on these questions with the latest scientific evidence but also offers tangible solutions that could mean better health for our hearts and for our planet.

Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation

Francois Reeves is an interventional cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Montreal, where he is also a member of the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development. He has been the head of cardiac catheterization laboratories at Notre-Dame Hospital and the Cite de la Sante Laval, as well as a health board member of the Quebec Tertiary Cardiac Network. He lives in Montreal.