Heart disease was an uncommon cause of death in the US at the beginning of the 20th century. By mid-century it had become the commonest cause. After peaking in the mid-1960s, the number of heart disease deaths began a marked decline that has persisted to the present.
Did people have heart attacks in the 1800s?
By the early nineteenth century, angina pectoris was widely known as a form of heart disease. It was understood to occur predominantly in men, and to be related to exertion (both physical and mental), diet and health.
