Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Heart attacks and stroke deaths dropped by a third in 2006 from 1999 as more people stopped smoking, ate better and used medications such as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Plavix to keep blood flowing freely within arteries.

Heart disease accounted for 1 in 3 U.S. deaths in 2006, the latest year for which data is available, the Dallas-based American Heart Association said in a statement today. Drugs including cholesterol-lowering statins such as Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor and the Plavix blood-thinner joined with better heart- attack treatment to lower the mortality rate, the health advocacy group said.

The heart association, which includes doctors and consumers in its membership, has lobbied against smoking for years. In 1998, the group set a national goal of reducing heart and stroke deaths 25 percent by 2010. The U.S. hit that mark in 2007, three years early. The change in death rates translates to about 190,000 lives saved in 2006.

“Medical therapy across the board has gotten better,” said Steven Nissen, head of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “But at least half of this is lifestyle. Remember that there have been new food labeling laws, laws to restrict trans fats, and smoking has been steadily declining for some time.”

The data was gathered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Heart-attack deaths dropped 31 percent between 1999 and 2006, and deaths from stroke fell 29 percent. About half of the mortality drop can be attributed to lifestyle changes that include exercise, fewer smokers and improved eating habits that help lower cholesterol and blood pressure, said Donald Lloyd- Jones, the report author and chair of the heart group’s statistics committee.

Medications, Therapies

The other half is due to medications, including statins such as Lipitor and better therapies for heart attack and stroke, said Lloyd-Jones, who is also a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.

“The goals set to be achieved by 2010 have been achieved four years early, and that’s pretty terrific,” Lloyd-Jones said in a telephone interview today. “We might have done even better were it not for the obesity epidemic and the increases in diabetes that go along with that.”

The average cholesterol levels for men over 40 and women over 60 declined to 199 milligrams per deciliter from 204 milligrams per deciliter, though there were no changes for other age groups, the report said.

Should the trend in deaths hold, there may be a 36 percent decline in heart attacks and 34 percent decline in strokes. In that case, about 240,000 lives will have been saved in 2008.

‘Small Things’

“A lot of small things have made an enormous difference,” the Cleveland Clinic’s Nissen said. “All the things we’ve been trying to tell people to do are getting through.”

Some risk factors for cardiovascular disease have increased, the report found. Two thirds of people ages 18 and older said they didn’t engage in any activity that might cause heavy sweating and an increase in heart rate. The number of people who are overweight has increased, the report said.

“We need to get much more serious about addressing the obesity epidemic,” Lloyd-Jones said. “We see signs we might start to lose some ground unless we get serious about stopping obesity.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at elopatto@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 15, 2008 16:00 EST