Heart

[emattson]

Recently I heard the news about Bronny James, Lebron James’ son, dropping from cardiac arrest while practicing basketball. A cardiac arrest happens when the heart suddenly stops beating because of electrical disturbance. Scary how an 18 year old athletic youth came so close to dying. Bronny had a ten percent risk of death even if CPR and Automated External Defibrillator are used within minutes. Survival rate drops by ten percent every minute he lies on the ground untreated. Each minute the heart doesn’t beat, the brain becomes more damaged. Eventually he’ll suffer liver failure, kidney failure, long-term heart disease, and severe health issues. He’ll need to relearn simple skills like walking, speech. An average man suffering cardiac arrest outside of a hospital and trained personnel has only a ten percent survival rate.

I have a special fascination with the human heart, seeing the devastating consequences when it’s unhealthy. I know at least two who died from heart failure. I also admire its strength.

The human heart is an incredible, muscular organ. It can pump about 1 million barrels of blood in an average lifetime. It’s powerful enough to push a truck twenty miles in a single day. Every cell of the body, except for the corneas, rely on the steady flow of blood. The hearts of four people living their full lives pump enough blood to fill Jahre Viking, formally Seawise Giant, the world’s largest oil tanker. The heart is highly resistant to fatigue because its muscle is made from special cells called cardiomyocytes. Even while a person is resting on a couch, the heart muscle works twice as hard as leg muscles while they sprint on a running track. That’s exhausting; I tire before reaching a single mile running at full tilt. It starts beating between 35 to 37 days after gestation. It then faithfully beat for 70, 80 years or longer.

So, how can a healthy, athletic teenager suddenly drop to the floor, his heart stopping? According to the NIH, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, cardiac arrests are rare for people younger than 30. Shabby genetics often increase the risk—irregular heartbeats, heart muscle defects making it more difficult to pump blood, problems with the heart’s structure, problems with coronary arteries (which supply blood to the heart muscle), or heart inflammation. Ten percent of people suffering from long QT syndrome, a problem with the electrical system that controls the heartbeat, experience cardiac arrest as its first sign.

Poor lifestyle can cause heart trouble. Drinking more than an equivalent of 30 ounces of coffee increases the risk of cardiac arrest. That limit can be easily reached through concentrated caffeine powder or energy drinks. One guy I know, who relied on energy drinks to power through his stressful job, had to rush himself to the hospital. Marijuana is nasty stuff. Bachs and Morland found six cases of acute cardiovascular death after very recent cannabis use. All were young men aged from 17 to 48. (Bachs L, Morland H. Acute cardiovascular fatalities following cannabis use. Forens Sci Int. 2001;124(2-3):200–3. doi: 10.1016/S0379-0738(01)00609-0.) Low to moderate doses of cannabis often causes the heart beat to race at an abnormally high rate of over 100 beats per minute and raise blood pressure. Cocaine and amphetamines also cause cardiac arrest. According to a study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, binge drinkers are 72% more likely to have a heart attack than those who don’t.

Stress isn’t all in the mind. Many studies have led people to feel that between 20 and 40 percent of sudden cardiac deaths are caused by horrible emotional stress. An acute emotional distress or an overwhelming episode of blinding rage can trigger abnormal heart rhythm, racing heart beats. Artery spasm may block important blood flow to heart muscles.