Stopping and Reversing Heart Disease

Everyone knows someone who has died from cardiovascular disease.

Heart disease is the #1 cause of premature death. High blood pressure alone kills more people worldwide than all infectious diseases combined.

Very few organizations work in cardiovascular health, and fewer yet work across prevention and treatment. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done—with limited political attention and global health funding. Resolve to Save Lives fills this gap.

By advancing three strategies, we can save 100 million lives over 30 years.

Increase the number of individuals with high blood pressure who have it effectively managed from 14% today to 50%
Reduce the amount of sodium that people consume by 30%
Eliminate artificial trans fat from the global food supply

To read more about these strategies, and the technical tools to implement them, visit LINKScommunity.org

Download the Cardiovascular Health overview (May 2022)

pdf 0.72MB

How to save 100 million lives

The majority of deaths from cardiovascular disease are in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), so that's where we focus most of our attention. Our primary objectives are to control hypertension, reduce sodium intake and eliminate trans fat.

Objective 1

Improve control of hypertension (high blood pressure) from 14% to 50%. Only about 1 in 7 people (14%) in the world has their blood pressure under control. There are simple, proven solutions to improve this for as little as $1 per person each year. More...

Objective 2

Reduce global dietary sodium intake by 30%. Cutting back on salt is proven to significantly reduce one’s risk of heart disease. Too much salt often leads to high blood pressure, which causes more than 2 million deaths each year. More...

Objective 3

Eliminate artificial trans fat from the global food supply. More than 40 countries have eliminated trans fat from the global food supply. However, 3.8 billion people still live without any policies protecting them from this artificial substance. Eliminating trans fat will save 17 million lives over the next three decades. More...

How we work

We work closely with technical partners, governments and civil society to help countries improve the heart health of their people. We fund and develop customized hypertension and nutrition programs with local partners, and advise on global prevention strategies and policies.

Read more about our work in hypertension control, sodium reduction and trans fat elimination.

The Lancet

In September 2017, Dr Tom Frieden and Michael Bloomberg authored Saving an additional 100 million lives in The Lancet, which outlined the broad goals that laid the foundation for our work.