Doctor’s Heart Attack • Hacker News Board

Re: Doctor’s Heart Attack

#11

Post by inglor_cz » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 9:25 AM UTC

sph wrote: post #10

inglor_cz wrote: post #9

There must be major genetic component to heart attacks. They run in some families, and, as the article says, being South Asian is in itself higher risk. Then there are the counterexamples. My grandma ate like pig (as a kid, I couldn't even tolerate the smell of some foods she enjoyed), was fat for most of her life, her blood lipids were all over the place, she never exercised and died of cancer aged 90 with negligibl…

What did she eat? There's a massive difference between gorging in meat and vegetables or donuts and fries. Not all food is the same.

She didn't eat donuts and fries, true. She was born in 1926 in rural eastern Slovakia, so her staples were meat (including cheap, highly processed meat), local variant of pasta (halušky), plus a lot of animal fat.

Her cholesterol was something like 9,5, often exceeding 10. She also smoked for 30 years, but stopped around 65 years of age.

Theoretically, her arteries should have been clogged like crazy. They weren't.

Re: Doctor’s Heart Attack

#12

Post by noneeeed » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 10:37 AM UTC

inglor_cz wrote: post #9

There must be major genetic component to heart attacks. They run in some families, and, as the article says, being South Asian is in itself higher risk. Then there are the counterexamples. My grandma ate like pig (as a kid, I couldn't even tolerate the smell of some foods she enjoyed), was fat for most of her life, her blood lipids were all over the place, she never exercised and died of cancer aged 90 with negligibl…

There are definitely genetic factors in the risk that cholesterol poses to the body. We are finding more and more genes that impact either how we digest and process food, what we do with excesses, and how our bodies react to all this. Then there is all the work going into the microbiome and its impact on these factors.

We like to think that everyone is the same, but the more that people research this stuff the more complex it seems to be.

Re: Doctor’s Heart Attack

#13

Post by nradov » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

ge96 wrote: post #3

I have had two people 40's and 50's die recently from heart attacks. I wonder if these days can you get like a secondary artificial heart on purpose. I imagine there is a space problem, maybe it could be placed elsewhere like in the guts but idk... My side of the family all died out from heart problems and I'm in line/too stupid to stop eating salt.

Heart attacks aren't caused by the heart itself failing but rather by arterial occlusion. Even if it were possible to build such a secondary artificial heart (it isn't) the risks of implantation surgery would far outweigh any possible benefits.

Salt is an essential nutrient. Hypertension does increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, but eating salt doesn't necessarily cause hypertension. The issue is with osmolality rather than quantity. (And genetics area huge factor.)

https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson2/

Re: Doctor’s Heart Attack

#14

Post by jnash » Fri, Apr 29, 2022, 12:53 AM UTC

Running is actually bad for you. Health is not the same as Fitness. The more you run, the more you risk long term damage. I know a lot of people reading this will disagree. In response I say: read "Body by Science".

Re: Doctor’s Heart Attack

#15

Post by nradov » Fri, Apr 29, 2022, 2:11 PM UTC

jnash wrote: post #14

Running is actually bad for you. Health is not the same as Fitness. The more you run, the more you risk long term damage. I know a lot of people reading this will disagree. In response I say: read "Body by Science".

Bullshit. There is no evidence that running with proper form harms your health.

Of course for optimal health people shouldn't just run as their only form of exercise. Ideally it should be combined with frequent weight training and other forms of cross training in order to gain muscle and avoid overuse injuries.