can young,healthy,athletic men have heart attacks?

[Lurker011]

this is a sad case. i like to read bodybuilding message boards. about a week ago,there was a 22 year old australian bodybuilder who was found unresponsive and breathless in a sauna. he was rushed to a local hospital but could not be revived. the postmortem report said that he died from a massive heart attack. he was just 22 and had a clean bill of health and was very athletic. this is shocking. have any of you,especially in the cardiac department,had a case of young and healthy men who had MI's? this is something that has really stunned me.

[missLissRn]

a friend of mine who is a body builder had a MI at 23 years old ( about 2 years ago) then just a couple months ago ripped his esophagus. both directly related to lifting.

the MI was related to: he was on a "special diet" to bulk up for a competetion, that night he came home and indulged in a nice steak. since his body wasn't use to this he had diarrhea. and since his "special diet" did not include enough K+ (even though he was taking suppliments), he drained his body of K+, thus causing his MI. his heart now is only working at 40% ... and the idoit still conitnues to lift.

then just a couple months ago a week before his wedding he ripped his esophagus from lifting. 2 weeks later he was bragging how he did a 600lb squat. i in returned asked his new wife "why do you keep letting him lift" ... she says to me "i just took out a life insurance policy since he won't stop"

i think if he wouldn't go on these diets, (and i'm really not sure of what they consist of, his trainer puts him on them) it wouldn't be as bad. i know its a drastic diet.

[Robublind]

I think there is a misunderstanding. Bodybuilders bodies are not always healthy. Although they have low body fat, the added muscle is still weight and can increase the workload of the heart. Second, these guys are lifting weights and alot of them don't do cardio workouts. Third, some but things into there body that don't belong.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

yes, of course.

[skinnegcCNA]

His name was Zyzz. He was very prominent on youtube and other body building forums / websites. I have known about for a very long time and don't be fooled as other people have already said. Just because he's ripped doesn't mean he's healthy.

In the websites where he is known, it is pretty much accepted that he takes a lot of steroids. I have seen pictures of him just a few years before he was extremely ripped, and he was barely 135 lbs.

He was also found dead in Thailand I believe. From what articles I've read you could obtain any kind of drug / steroid you wanted there so I'm sure he went to town on them.

It was also reported in some articles that he suffered from hypertension before the attack. So it very may well have been a genetic heart disease of some kind that lead to his attack. But most likely it was caused from years of drug and steroid abuse.

Thanks

Garrett

P.S. It was also stated in articles that he was being charged with possesion of illegal substances ( steroids ) at the time. Proof that I'm not just making this up because I'm jealous of how ripped he was

[LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN]

This happened twice in my city last year. One the kid was a junior in high school just came off the football field. Another kids mom who happened to be nurse was on the field nearby when he colapsed. She did CPR untill parmedics arrived. the kid did surrive.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/09/13/1340040/nurse-saves-oregon-high-school.html

The other child was not as lucky

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

there was one kid -- 19 or 20 -- who came in to our ccu every three or four months with an mi after using cocaine. each and every time he swore he'd never touch the stuff again. last i heard, he had an ejection fraction of about 15% and was getting pre-op teaching for a ventricular assist device. yeah, like that'll do it.

[ChuckeRN, BSN, RN]

Bodybuilders may look healthy, but they are usually the first to try something to get an advantage. For example, when I was into lifting weights, (years and years ago), people were injecting themselves with insulin, HGH, as well as using GHB, Clenbuterol, diuretics, as well as the obvious anabolic steroids.

Imagine what would happen as a bodybuilder gets closer to a show and starts taking diuretics to leech water from their system in order for their musculature to look more defined. Then he gets into a sauna to lose even more water weight. Think about the electrolyte imbalance that can occur like potassium loss. That sounds like a recipe for heart problem to me.

[danegerous, BSN, RN]

It is very important to remember, as many have pointed out, that "health" is not all it's cracked up to be. Many patients come into my ICU and their family says, "He's been so healthy his whole life!", and what they really mean is that he hasn't gone to the hospital in his whole life.

Hearts are very susceptible to genetic disorders. A very common problem, and it has been mentioned here, is an enlarged heart, (referred to as cardiomegaly), or cardiomyopathy, which is a breakdown of the muscle tissue of the heart. Both of these can simply be passed on through the bloodline. A lot of times, sadly enough, the young people that suffer MIs related to these causes are because they're active.

If you have a diseased heart, it will most likely work just fine when you stress it to only 30-40% of its maximum capability. But when you puch the heart to the max, it absolutely MUST perform perfectly. This is when the damaged heart give out. That's why you'll see teens dying while playing sports.

The sauna was most likely the trigger for the body builder's MI. You'll probably remember that when a person is made freezing cold (falling into a frozen lake, for instance), they can survive for extended amounts of time. That's because the body slows everything down, including the need for metabolism, oxygen, and blood. This is why the most advanced hospitals now cool patients to a staggering 33 degrees Celsius. On the opposite hand, when a body is heated, the metabolic requirements are drastically increased. Now the heart must work harder to supply the organs with freash blood, oxygen, and energy.

Also, as an older person with a longer history of a disease process, the patient will have a better chance of developing alternate methods for achieving normal-style blood/oxygen prefusion/delivery.

[MassED, BSN, RN]

any man can have a heart attack. There is no profile, per se.

[jack22]

In today's date any one can affected by this problem.

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

Hearts are very susceptible to genetic disorders.

My thoughts exactly. No matter how healthy of a lifestyle a person has, he or she cannot change genes, nor any anomalies in the body into which he or she was born!

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

any man can have a heart attack. There is no profile, per se.

Or woman. :)