Risk for cardiovascular kidney metabolic syndrome is linked to behavior, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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CKM stands for cardiovascular kidney metabolic syndrome, and Chiadi Ndumele, a Johns Hopkins cardiologist and chair of the American Heart Association writing committee that described the syndrome, says while people’s choices determine much of their risk to develop it, it’s just not that simple.

Ndumele: Behavior is very important but the way we often conceptualize it as a society is hey just do better, have more willpower or eat less and exercise more. Really it's all in the context of an individual's social broader context. We have to consider that the reason why 70% of the United states has overweight or obesity, it's not because we've had a sudden failure in willpower for our entire country it’s because there's systemic structural changes that make it harder for people to live well so we want to think about that broader social context.  :29

Ndumele says even things like widespread availability of ultraprocessed foods and constant bombardment with advertising to consume them, juxtaposed against more difficulty finding nutritious food easily, require policy level interventions to change. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.