David Gordon - The American Cardiovascular Pandemic: A 100-Year History

I dedicate this book to my wife Susan, who has not only encouraged and supported me at every step, but who has also shared the insights she gained during her years at the Chicago chapter of the American Heart Association in the late 1970s, where she helped coordinate public smoking, blood pressure, and diet education campaigns. Her stories about their successful efforts to persuade city restaurants to ban cigarettes helped put a human face on the vital impact of local volunteer organization in the battle against cardiovascular disease. She has patiently listened to me try out my ideas on her. No one could wish for a better partner in life.

I also want to express special thanks to my dear friend Debra Roney for her wonderful illustrations of atherosclerotic plaques (Figure 5.2), the coronary arteries (Figure 10.1), and the cardiac conduction system (Figure 12.1).

I am also deeply indebted to the NIHand specifically the NHLBIwhere I am fortunate to have spent most of my career. I could not have hoped to find a more supportive professional environment or one that better embodies the values of scientific rigor and integrity. Working at the NHLBI has enabled me to join a community of talented and dedicated professionals at NIH and at the institutions it serves in an extraordinary enterprise far larger than ourselves, guided by the twin goals of advancing human knowledge and ameliorating human disease. I have had the good fortune to work with many brilliant and dedicated colleagues on the studies described in this book over the course of my long careertoo many to acknowledge individually here. However, I want to specifically thank George Mensah who invited me in 2016 to collaborate with him on an article for Circulation Research about the decline in cardiovascular mortality, which was the starting point for the present book. I also want to acknowledge another co-author of that article, Michael Mussolino, who provided the health statistics for that article, which I have also used liberally in this book. Additionally, I want to thank Jeff Cutler for his constructive feedback on the first draft of this book and Jacques Rossouw for his historical perspective on the Womens Health Initiative.

I also want to express my deep gratitude and affection to my early mentors, who introduced me to cardiovascular epidemiology and clinical trials and without whom I might never have found my calling: Basil Rifkind (who gave me my first opportunity in this field and supported me at every turn), Al Tyroler and Gerardo Heiss (who supervised my Masters research), and Dale Williams and Ed Davis (who welcomed me to their Lipid Research Clinics Data Coordinating Center in Chapel Hill in 197984).

I also want to acknowledge the many other collaborators and friendstoo numerous to name herethat I have made in my 42 years at NIH. These include my former NHLBI colleagues, many of whom worked on projects cited in this book: Robin Boineau, Bryan Brewer, Denis Buxton, James Cleeman, Patrice Desvigne-Dickens, Ray Ebert, Debra Egan, Lawrence Fine, Jerome Fleg, William Friedewald, Larry Friedman, Nancy Geller, Suzanne Goldberg, Ronald Goor, Max Halperin, Ahmed Hasan, Tracy Hoke, Erin Iturriaga, Ruth Kirby, Michael Lauer, Eric Leifer, Alice Mascette, Marissa Miller, Stephen Mockrin, Chuke Nwachuku, Gerald Payne, Gail Pearson, Michael Proschan, Diane Reid, Yves Rosenberg, Beth Schucker, Monica Shah, Susan Shurin, Sonya Skarlatos, Joni Snyder, George Sopko, Paul Sorlie, Wendy Taddei-Peters, Momtaz Wassef, and Gina Wei. They also include my many collaborators and friends outside the walls of NIH: Colin Baigent, Noel Bairey Merz, Elizabeth Barrett Connor, Reagan Bradford, Maria Brooks, Barry Davis, Katherine Detre, Robert Frye, Curt Furberg, Saul Genuth, Scott Grundy, David Herrington, Judith Hochman, Howard Hodis, Donald Hunninghake, Anthony Keach, James Knoke, Lewis Kuller, Gervasio Lamas, John LaRosa, Jay Mason, Lemuel Moy, Pamela Ouyang, Marc Pfeffer, Bertram Pitt, Stuart Pocock, Jeff Probstfield, Paul Ridker, Robert Simari, Neil Stone, Jonathan Tolbert, Joel Verter, David Waters, Paul Whelton, Janet Wittes, Jackson Wright, and Faiez Zannad. Thanks also to those who have shared their ideas or listened to or critiqued my ideas at a scientific symposium or in a casual conversation, and those whose journal articles I have read or who have read mine. To the many who have influenced my thinking and understanding in unknowable ways, I hope this book reflects well on what you have taught me.