Heart problems could be about to explode into demographic groups not traditionally associated with such ailments, the Heart and Stroke Foundation says in its annual report. (File photo)

Young Canadians adults, baby boomers and women are now the new faces of heart disease, according to a new national report warning of a “perfect storm” for an explosion of the disease in the next generation.

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s 2010 Annual Report on Canadians’ Health, Canada faces a looming crisis due to skyrocketing rates of high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes among groups normally immune to heart disease, which ranks as the country’s number one killer.

The study points to alarming jumps in heart disease risk factors among young Canadians — in particular those aged 35 to 49 — between 1994 and 2005. During that decade, high blood pressure shot up by a staggering 127% for that age group, while diabetes rates increased by 64% and obesity by 20%.

The risks start even earlier, says the report, with 250,000 Canadians in their 20s and 30s now living with high blood pressure.

“What we’re seeing now is high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, in addition to obesity,” said Robert Reid, associate director of the Minto Prevention and Rehabilitation Centre at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, of the new surge of heart-risk signs among young adults.

The report also gave regional report cards on heart health, with the city of Ottawa scoring third among Ontario’s 36 health units.

Ottawa residents showed lower rates of obesity, smoking, physical inactivity and high blood pressure levels, as well as higher rates of healthy eating — findings that match the city’s highly-educated, well-employed population, said Reid.

However, the picture is not so rosy within a 30-minute drive both east and west of the capital, with some of the province’s highest rates of obesity and smoking in the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark region and in the Cornwall area, said Reid.

Residents living up the Valley and down the St. Lawrence Seaway have higher rates of strokes and heart attacks than people in Ottawa, giving credence to the new report’s call for a national heart disease strategy to even out unequal prevention and treatment programs now found across Canada.

Last year, the Heart and Stroke Foundation called for the federal government to invest $700 million for a national heart disease strategy, which would save $1 billion in long-term health care costs, said Reid.

It’s estimated cardiovascular disease costs the Canadian economy $22 billion annually.

donna.casey@sunmedia.ca