Posted on 06/24/2008 9:33:46 PM PDT by neverdem
Apart from its sadness, Tim Russert’s death this month at 58 was deeply unsettling to many people who, like him, had been earnestly following their doctors’ advice on drugs, diet and exercise in hopes of avoiding a heart attack.
Mr. Russert, the moderator of “Meet the Press” on NBC News, took blood pressure and cholesterol pills and aspirin, rode an exercise bike, had yearly stress tests and other exams and was dutifully trying to lose weight. But he died of a heart attack anyway.
An article in The New York Times last week about his medical care led to e-mail from dozens of readers insisting that something must have been missed, that if only he had been given this test or that, his doctors would have realized how sick he was and prescribed more medicine or recommended bypass surgery.
Clearly, there was sorrow for Mr. Russert’s passing, but also nervous indignation. Many people are in the same boat he was in, struggling with weight, blood pressure and other risk factors — 16 million Americans have coronary artery disease — and his death threatened the collective sense of well-being. People are not supposed to die this way anymore, especially not smart, well-educated professionals under the care of doctors.
Mr. Russert’s fate underlines some painful truths. A doctor’s care is not a protective bubble, and cardiology is not the exact science that many people wish it to be. A person’s risk of a heart attack can only be estimated, and although drugs, diet and exercise may lower that risk, they cannot eliminate it entirely. True, the death rate from heart disease has declined, but it is still the leading cause of death in the United States, killing 650,000 people a year. About 300,000 die suddenly, and about half, like Mr. Russert, have...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And in the interest of fairness and full disclosure, I have seen some promising studies on statins having a significant role in preventing second heart attacks.
Bottom line is still diet and exercise and make sure you chose the right parents!
Let them start using it overseas. I like having a record overseas before the FDA gives it the OK, and we start using it in the USA.
I've been in the industry 15 years, and sadly, I agree.
But doctors have many tools to work with...perhaps an MRI of the heart might have shown the plaque that was growing inside the cardiac artery for Mr. Russert’s heart..That piece of plaque was between the inner and outer walls of that particular artery and may have shown on an MRI...
No doubt more could have been done, but that’s kinda Monday morning quarterbacking.
I’m intensely interested in bio, but would drive myself crazy if I was a doctor.
To be constantly torn between the idea of individual care and what was best for the group.
That would be way too much for me.
I’ll stick with computers. I can fix computers!
Perhaps the plaque ruptured and the body thought it was bleeding to death so it sent the blood clotting essentials to the the area to stop it, but instead a blood clot was formed resulting in death.
That's not a good example. When you don't have much to work with, almost anything is better than nothing.
Vioxx is also a bad example. No one has offered a mechanism for Vioxx causing death that's made the MSM. It could have been from interfering with Aspirin's irreversible inhibition of platelet aggregation. IIRC, all NSAIDs except Aspirin are described as reversible inhibitors of platelet aggregation. If they took the baby Aspirin two hours before the Vioxx or Bextra they might still be alive.
Drug Insight: cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors—a critical appraisal
Consequently, it is plausible that a permanent blockade of COX2-dependent prostaglandins, including prostacyclin, is the (currently) most plausible explanation for the cardiovascular hazard conferred by selective and nonselective inhibitors. In fact, prostacyclin, which is suppressed by over 60% by both NSAIDs and COX2 inhibitors,50 is not only a potent inhibitor of platelet aggregation, but also interferes with processes leading to hypertension, atherogenesis and cardiac dysfunction. In a randomized study, diclofenac, given in a delayed release form, elicits an even more pronounced inhibition of intravascular COX2-dependent prostaglandin formation than rofecoxib and celecoxib.15 It has been suggested in this context that both degree and time-course of intravascular COX2 inhibition might determine the differential profile of cardiovascular side effects associated with NSAIDs and COX2 inhibitors.
Life is a 100% fatal disease.
I guess that means the game is compressing morbidity.
This is what I've been thinking. Show me someone who is "struggling to lose weight" and I'll show you someone who has been and still is eating too much and exercising too little. Russert never looked all that healthy to me. Instead of all of the cutting edge medical science he might have gotten more benefit from better food, calorie counting, and more physical activity daily. A lot of that other stuff seems more like treating symptoms than addressing root causes to me.
Same thing happened to my father, at the exact same age. I was in my early teens. My heart goes out to his family.
It’s really a bit more complicated then just HDL/LDL,etc...
there is CRP(C reactive protein)high sensitivity, there
are apoproteins, homocysteine involved...there is blood
pressure, diabetes, smoking, drinking alcohol, exercise,
collateral circulation development, platelet clotting,
adequate rest, endothelin factors, pulmonary problems....
The adequacy of statins for protection against MI’s, is
more of an average kinda approach...like folks with
lower cholesterols had less MI, or CAD symptoms...as long
as the groups tested were more or less equal (although
most studies don’t stratify with all the known risk factors).
...But a single person like Russert, or anyone else, may fall way
out of the average (statistically “an outlier”) and it
may be inaccurate to apply group statistics to his or
any other individual case.
The take home lesson....lose weight to where body fat
is at a healthy minimum, exercise, eat low
fat foods, rest, make sure you get enough vitamins, antioxidants,
keep busy (not outrageously) try and correct any really
high risk biochemical findings...and pray.
After all, we still don’t know whether light is particle or wave, or
why it can act like both.
And yet, if he yo-yo dieted, that would have been worse for him than if he just stayed overweight.
Perhaps so. The idea is to lose the excess weight gradually (1-2 lbs. per week) and then keep it off once you reach your target. Set a ceiling at 3-5 lbs. over your target weight. If you hit the ceiling then you immediately resume the weight-loss behaviors for a few weeks to go back down. Call it yo-yoing on a really short string.
Same thing happened to two of my friends who were very fit, not overweight, one was 60, one was 48.
People like to think that have control by taking this med or that, or staying trim and fit...but control is an illusion.
It’s a terrible shock to the family when a person drops dead at a young age.
Statin drugs are dangerous. All these drugs are dangerous.
I avoid doctors and take supplements with Ester C being one of the most important. I was forced to take an insurance physical last week. The doctor was amazed but he didn't know a lot of what I do as I know he really wouldn't want to know.
Body PH is important. Ester C eleminates inflammation.
My husband is 74 a smoker and I wouldn't think of telling him to avoid doctors but he agrees with me. He also had to have the physical. We're waiting to hear back from the insurance company but it's likely we'll both be accepted and I may be preferred.
My doctor said he was especially surprised at the clarity of my vessels and veins.
A family member of mine was overweight, and had high cholesterol, but was otherwise healthy. The doctor put her on anti-cholesterol meds, and her health spiraled downward, leading to digestive problems, too much weight loss, leading to additional meds, including anti-anxiety meds, etc. etc.
After losing too much weight, and becoming dangerously thin, she is now on several meds, including the anti-anxiety meds, and has gained all the weight back.
So, she is back where she started, weight-wise, but is now on additional meds, and feels awful.
I suspect the number is much higher.
Sounds typical. Stay away from drugs.
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