PHYSICIAN GROUP HOPES TO HAVE 'HEART TO HEART'WITH MISSOURI

Missouri's second-highest mortality rate for coronary heart disease is leading a national doctors' group to target the state with a series of public service commercials around Valentine's Day.

But the message may be a difficult for some viewers to swallow. The group recommends a vegetarian diet to unclog arteries and prevent death from heart disease.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is launching a national television advertising campaign on heart disease prevention. Missouri is one of 10 target states, as well as Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, New York, West Virginia and Rhode Island.

New York has the highest rate of coronary heart disease.

The 30-second commercial will air locally on KFVS-TV until Wednesday.

Additionally, the commercial will attempt to persuade meat-eaters they have three times the risk of dying from coronary heart disease than vegetarians.

Committee president Dr. Neal D. Barnard said he believes vegetarian diets are a key to lowering risk of heart attack.

"Every day, 4,000 people in the United States suffer a heart attack, many of them fatal," he said. "Most of those people could be saved if they followed this simple prescription: a low-fat vegetarian diet."

The American Medical Association estimates about one million people have heart attacks each year and that roughly one-third are fatal.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, especially good nutrition, and higher standards in research.