Figures from American Heart Association (AHA) show that there is a 30% decrease in the heart diseases and stroke related deaths in the US since 1999.

According to the experts, these improvements are somewhat surprising as the majority of the Americans tend to an inactive and obesity-friendly lifestyle.

Dr. Timothy Gardner, who is the President of AHA, says in a news release: “There is not the same decline in the major risk factors for stroke and heart disease and that’s why the work in this connection has not been completed yet.”

During seven year (1999-2006) a 30.7% drop was noted in heart disease related deaths and a 29.2% decrease in stroke related deaths.

The study has been published in the online issue of the journal Circulation on Dec.15.

Though there is a considerable drop in heart disease and stroke related deaths, they are two major causes of death in the US and according to some reports there were 2.4million deaths because of these diseases during 2006.

Majority of Americans tend to an inactive lifestyle and a survey suggests that nearly 62 percent of Americans adults don’t have any vigorous activity that lasts more than ten minutes.

But despite these facts, AHA still believes that it will manage to meet the targets of decreasing heart and stroke related deaths by 25% by the end of 2010.