Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I worked in fire/rescue and knew many people in the community, so over the years I've known several people who had heart attacks before 50. Although you're not helping yourself to have an unhealthy lifestyle, the truth is there are a lot of factors that cause them, and often the cause is never really determined. A lot of times they were people who appeared to be in really great shape, or were very careful with their diets. And there were a sad number of young athletes, and the reason was nothing more than something in their body that finally got the best of them.
Last edited by Piney Creek; 03-15-2019 at 06:37 AM..
I worked in fire/rescue and knew many people in the community, so over the years I've known several people who had heart attacks before 50. Although you're not helping yourself to have an unhealthy lifestyle, the truth is there are a lot of factors that cause them, and often the cause is never really determined. A lot of times they were people who appeared to be in really great shape, or were very careful with their diets. And there were a sad number of young athletes, and the reason was nothing more than something in their body that finally got the best of them.
Absolutely true. When I had mine at 42, the Doctor attending me said " We are seeing them younger and younger all the time." For a while, Americans were living longer than their forefathers, but that is not so true any longer.
Absolutely true. When I had mine at 42, the Doctor attending me said " We are seeing them younger and younger all the time." For a while, Americans were living longer than their forefathers, but that is not so true any longer.
Well, yes and no. One reason so many more people appear to be "dying young" is they are surviving longer than they would have a few generations ago (when they would have died in infancy or maybe very early childhood).
A fellow graduate student in the mid 1970s had his first heart attack in his early 30s. So did his father and his grandfather. They all had cholesterol through the roof. I suspect they had what we now call familial hypercholesterolemia - but I don't know that it had a name back then. Plus you didn't have the treatment options then that we have today.
settled00 - he said, may I be blunt - to bear down as if having a bowel movement. I’ve never really had to bear down for that, but I’m pretty sure the doc saved my life several times - or at least saved me from several ER visits. It works. So far. I won’t work forever - I’m simply lucky for now. My heart likes to jump around like a goofball and it’s really scary.
When I had insurance, they said I needed surgery to fix it, but it wasn’t dire at the moment. It would only be an issue when I got older.
Welp, I’m older. I should have had the surgery. When I’ve been on Medicaid (equivalent to going to the ER for crises, just quieter), they refused to let me see a cardiologist. Refused to put me on meds I’d been on and asked for repeatedly. Nope! Sad day for me! They put me on HBP meds, fine, but that never addresses my electrical short. So there you go. Pro tip: don’t be poor.
Also, you can’t just go to a cardiologist and throw cash at them.
Folks: if you have insurance that includes specialists - make sure you are cared for because if/when you lose good care - Medicaid is designed to make care as difficult to get as possible. At least that’s been my experience in my state for years. It’s sickening that pols don’t know the details. People die because of deliberate Medicaid obstacles. I’ll probably be one of them.
Side note, had a pap done (years ago) - doc asked me when I had my hysterectomy. Um, what? He couldn’t find my damn cervix apparently.
You get what you pay for in America I guess. Really makes me mad - Ive always been proactively healthy. I went from being a productive, active contributor to society to being bedridden for years.
If I had access to doctors I am sure I would have bounced back enough to be productive.
I’m trying to overcome those years of immobility on my own. Still have no help with my heart, bones or genetic blood disorder (that nearly took my life - I should have meds available -like an epiPen but for bleeding). I used to have it... in the fridge. I had it for a month. Then I lost humane, ongoing access.
It’s really tragic. I just wanted preventive/maintenance care. It’s amazing what happens to someone when care is denied and chronic issues can’t be maintained.
If you have health care, cherish it.
hi Paperwing,
thank you for sharing your heartfelt story. It is truly moving. My god how many people have you just helped. I will remember your story when it comes time to vote for universal healthcare. At times we forget to humanize this issue, but you did a stunning presentation of the REAL issues of poor healthcare services for people without --even for those who contributed their whole lives only to be dropped.
thank you so much, you have my heart and sympathy, and how I wish things were better run than what we've had. I've been in countries where all were easily and affordably taken good care of. This is just disgraceful to hear.
A coworker died of massive heart attack at age 37. My dad had 3 before his 55th birthday and died at 56 from complications related to heart disease. Here’s a tragic one, former miss teen universe dies at 20 from heart attack.
I know a woman, now 78, who had a heart attack when she was 47. Father died in his early fifties after several heart attacks when she was a teenager, and she dropped out of high school. Then when she was 43, her husband died and left her with three teenagers. She had to figure out a way to support them, starting with going back and getting her GED.
She smoked, so that probably contributed, but she believes that with all that happened it was stress, and that the last straw was the death of her beloved German shepherd. She had the heart attack right after the dog died.
She still has occluded arteries, is diabetic, and has emphysema (quit smoking about 15 years ago), but she keeps chugging along. Drinks a couple glasses of red wine every night.
If you do any heavy cardio you run a risk without warning. You could be the least likely candidate but it can happen during exercise. So it's important to take breaks and not get into some non-stop reps that push your body too hard.
I don't do cardio, I only do weights and I don't do some extremely long sets that I can't catch a breath.
My father who is 78 right now, never had a stroke or heart attack says drink whiskey regularly.
Not before 50, but my mom had so many her cardiologist stopped counting. He attributed her cardiac issues to tick borne vectors (Lyme, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis -she had all three).
I have an electrical short in my heart that freaks out sometimes - cardiologist 20+ years ago told me to “bear down” as if doing a movement, until it subsides. If that doesn’t work call 911, but I have no insurance so that’s funny. So far I’m still alive.
A dear friend lost his athletic teenage son suddenly... on Valentine’s Day -heart attack. An unknown anomaly just wiped a young healthy man out.
I'm sorry about your mom and your friend's son.
It sounds to me as though what you're describing with your own heart issues is an arrythmia called Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT). That's a condition related to the cardiac electrical system (which keeps the heart pumping). In this condition, usually due to some sort of a "short circuit", or abnormal electrical pathway in the heart's normal electrical pathway that causes the heart to suddenly start beating very fast ( can be anywhere from 150 to well over 200 beats/minute), and this lasts sometimes just for a few beats, or several minutes, to hours. Generally the tachycardia stops as suddenly as it began, or sometimes doesn't and requires some intervention to stop it What you are describing as "bearing down" is called a Valsalva manuver and it's one of a number of physical things that may break the cycle of this tachycardia and stop it.
People with structurally normal and healthy hearts otherwise can have SVT, and it's generally not considered dangerous on its own. But depending on how often and how long the attacks go, it can do a number on one's quality of life, as it can be symptomatic (dizziness, lightheadedness, shortness of breath and even fainting sometimes). It can be dangerous if one's driving or engaging in other activities.
I've had SVT for years (probably since I was a teenager) have kept it more or less under control with a beta-blocker (metoprolol), prescribed after the first out of control run of SVT I had sent me to the ER years ago(heart rate around 203 or so and wouldn't stop until I got an IV drug called adenosine).
Know anyone who had a heart attack before age 50? Was it due to a heart defect or a lifestyle factor?
Both.
There was a guy, I always confuse Jim Fixx with Jim Shorter, one was an Olympic runner and the other just a health-nut who extolled the virtues of running and how healthy it was on TV and magazines.
He was the one who started the whole running craze in America in the 1970s.
Anyway, the health-nut runner died at age 37 of a massive heart attack.
That kind of put a damper on running for a while.
Life-Style can cause people to die of heart attacks very early, and so can genetics or medical conditions, and then there's people who are genetically predisposed or have medical conditions and could have lived another 10-20 years if it wasn't for their Life-Style.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
