I had a heart attack on my birthday. We went for the world’s easiest hike to do some bird photography. During the hike I began feeling surprisingly fatigued and we turned back. On the drive back into town, my wife, who was driving, said I fell sleep or passed out (likely the latter). She, a retired RN, drove me to our local ER. I walked in on my own – they immediately triaged me and an ECG found heart problems – this led to a cardiac code response and instantly a team of top notch professionals were all over me. About 30 minutes later I was on a medevac helicopter flight to the regional medical center cath lab where my coronary artery blockage was cleared and a stent inserted.
Cardiologists told me I had no obvious risk factors – I don’t smoke, drink, have diabetes or pre-diabetes, I exercise, and my ten years of lip panels in their medical records were normal. A CT scan during the heart attack showed “minimal calcium deposits”. My cardiologist said she saw nothing that would have alerted her to trouble. I’d had an echo cardiogram 9 weeks earlier that found my heart was fine. And then I had a heart attack.
Turns out there are a LOT of people who did everything right but still had a heart attack. Yet on social media, I see people believing if you have a heart attack, it’s your fault. You didn’t exercise right. You didn’t eat right. It’s obviously your fault. I’d even eaten largely vegetarian for 4 of the prior 5 years, and Mediterranean for the last year.
As my doctor said, it is likely that randomness and genetics play much larger roles than “controllable risk factors”. But you won’t see that in news stories that tell you how to eat, etc, to avoid heart disease. While diet may play a role, for many of us, it may play a tiny role. Indeed, an estimated 75% of the people who present to ERs with a heart attack have normal cholesterol levels!
In my case, one thought is the vitamin B-12 deficiency caused by “eating vegetarian” (I had B-12 deficiency that had caused heart arrythmia among many problems), led to raising my homocysteine levels which is directly implicated in coronary artery disease. Doing “everything right” may have nearly killed me.
Upon looking into it, it is easy to find many stories of experts who did everything right yet still had heart attacks. It is unclear that all the media nonsense about “how to lead a healthy life” is anything other than bull shit – but its persuaded many that anyone who has a health problem – heart attack, cancer, disease – is due to their own actions and it’s their fault. We have literally formalized blaming the patient.
- 74-year-old retired doctor, ultramarathon runner, health and nutrition expert – dies of blocked artery in his heart while hiking: Heart attack: He did everything right and died of a heart attack
- I’m a heart surgeon and heart attack survivor. Never ignore these 6 heart symptoms – he’d done everything right: “I eat right. I exercise all the time. My lab markers are all good. Like, come on, this can’t be. It’s not possible,” – but, in fact, he had a blocked artery and a heart attack.
- About Us – IM8 Health – See Dr. Dawn Mussalem, oncologist. Plant based eater, former competitive gymnast, runner – then cancer survivor, lost her husband to cardiac arrest, then she survived heart failure, and later had a heart transplant in 2021: She’s survived cancer, heart failure and a heart transplant | American Heart Association
- I Had a Heart Attack While Running. This Is What It Felt Like. – experience similar to mine, felt tired, had same artery blockage as me.
- Novi attorney, ultramarathoner dies during 102-mile Colorado race – had completed multiple Ironman triathlons, multiple ultramarathons all over the world, had climbed high mountain peaks – and died of a heart attack.
- Micah True cause of death: Autopsy shows heart disease killed famed ‘ultrarunner’ | Daily Mail Online
- ‘I Survived A SCAD Heart Attack At 56. It Led To A Total Fitness Transformation In My 60s.’ – “I never thought I’d have a heart attack. I am a former ballet dancer and track and field competitor, as well as a regionally ranked master’s triathlete. I’ve consistently worked out and raced since my early 20s. Even in my 50s, I was still competing in high-intensity events“…”I thought it was nearly impossible for me to have one since I was so fit, didn’t smoke or take drugs, ate relatively well, and had regular physical exams. Just two days before my SCAD occurred, I ran five miles and felt great.”
- She was 26, an avid runner, a vegetarian for ten years – and she had a heart attack: PressReader.com – Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions. She had no obvious risk factors. She has gone on to run 8 marathons since her heart attack.
- Lifelong marathon and trail runner: Strangers bring runner back to life after he collapses from heart attack on trail – ““On Wednesday, March 19th at 9:47 a.m., I collapsed while running and had a heart attack,” the sign read. “If you were the angel who saved my life and allowed me to take one more breath, I so admire your courage and would welcome the chance to meet you when and if you are ready.” FYI – there are angels all around us – they helped save my life too. Some are retired RNs (my wife), some work in the ER, and some fly helicopters – they are all angels. Angels are alll around us
- ‘Healthy’ man, 33, dies suddenly on flight in front of pregnant wife | Need To Know – “He had no known underlying conditions”
- Christian Eriksen: How tiny device led to his ‘miracle’ football return – professional athlete (“Football” in Europe, known as soccer in the U.S.) had cardiac arrest at age 29. “Heart attack” and “cardiac arrest” are different; the former is a blocked artery; the latter is typically an electrical system problem causing the heart to stop beating.
- Noted cardiac surgeon, on his way to work, dies of heart attack in Chennai | Chennai News – The Times of India – age 39, blocked LAD.
- No, Running Isn’t a Silver Bullet for Health – Trail Runner Magazine – runner, Nordic skier, long time vegetarian, under 40, taking statins since age 22 – and he’s pre-diabetic has high cholesterol. ““We can’t outrun our genetics,” D’Souza says. “Genetic factors play a huge role; more than 70 percent of cholesterol is made in our liver. [The other] 30 percent we control in our diet.”” – “Take it from me. A few years ago, I had a stroke due to a heart defect. I was active as heck and controlling my cholesterol with medication and bam! I got t-boned by something I didn’t even know I should be watching out for. ” – “It can be frustrating to think you can do everything right and still be at risk of chronic diseases more typically associated with a sedentary lifestyle.”
- “Sam Bobbitt, 56, is a highly experienced runner. As a physical education teacher and the track and cross-country coach at E.A. Laney High School in Wilmington, he feels right at home when running and has his routines down pat. So as he prepared to run the half-marathon in the Novant Health Wilmington Marathon, he never suspected the biggest surprise of his life was about to befall him: About a mile and a half into the race, he would suffer a cardiac arrest.” – His heart stopped beating while he was running the Wilmington Marathon. Here’s what happened next. | Novant Health | Healthy Headlines – angels came to his rescue.
- Climate: We don’t know the cause of death but it was definitely climate – Social Panic – a young runner died while running in a Disney sponsored half marathon running race. The media blamed high temperatures, neglecting to note the race started at 5 am and temperatures during the race were in the 70s. His death was later judged due to cardiac arrest – yet he had apparently done everything right.
- The Monkees’ Davy Jones dead at 66 | CNN – ““He was a vegetarian, and there was not an ounce of fat on the guy,” Jacobson said. “He lived on the beach in Florida and ran miles every morning. This is the last person I expected this to happen to. He couldn’t have been in better shape.”
- 24-year-old runner: Marathon Runner Who Felt Breathless Finds Out She Has Heart Failure at 24 – Newsweek – likely congenital heart defect
- Personal trainer, fitness guru, had heart attack at age 51: The truth about why Biggest Loser’s Bob Harper had a heart attack (same heart attack as I had – the “widow maker”) “”I’ve learned a lot about the fact that genetics played a part in this. It is so important to know your health.” For context, Harper’s mother died of a heart attack at 70 and his grandfather passed away from one as well. What’s more, despite his life being very exercise-heavy, his cholesterol levels were revealed to be quite high.” (Mine were within the normal range for the past ten years) He, of course, switched to a “plant-based diet”). “As Harper’s case has shown, even if you live a well-balanced, active lifestyle, you are still at risk of having a heart attack. That’s because, while regular exercise and a healthy diet can be generally beneficial for heart health, and reduce the risk of certain conditions, it doesn’t eliminate that risk altogether.” Do they read what they wrote? -> “That being said, “while you cannot change your family history, or your genetics, there are things you can do to reduce your risk of having a heart attack.” These include staying active – like Harper – as well as maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding alcohol and tobacco products.” He had been doing those things …
- Jim Fixx, author of The Complete Book of Running (good book), running up to 80 miles per week, died of a heart attack at age 52 due to plaque buildup in his arteries. High carb diet is thought to have been a factor in his condition.
- Sad: He would have been super fit too: Firefighter who died of a heart attack fighting blaze in Montana transported to Spokane
- Nancy Richards of Madras, OR suffered the same heart attack as me, just before finishing (yes, in the midst of a heart attack she finished) the Boston Marathon in 2015. She’d even been tested before this happened (same hospital as me!) and they said she had a 1% chance of a heart attack (which is a very low score). And then she had a heart attack. Ten years later she finished the Boston Marathon!!!! Good news! Let’s see Nancy Richards finish this one! – Coldstreams (She is a hero and inspiration to me).
- Heart attack: Unhealthy plant-based diet may increase risk by 65%. Related: Frontiers | Intakes of folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 and cardiovascular disease risk: a national population-based cross-sectional study – B6 deficiency associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
- ‘I Stopped Eating Meat After a Near-Death Experience’ – Newsweek – he was very fit and exercised a lot. But had a heart attack. Post heart attack, he concluded he needed to avoid fat in his diet and became vegan – which just 1% of the population adhere too. Hopefully he is getting professional advice on how to manage B-12 deficiency. In fact, if you do vegetarian or vegan wrong -> Heart attack: Unhealthy plant-based diet may increase risk by 65%. (Note – as of 2025, the US Dietary Guidelines will likely drop restrictions on saturated fat. A 2024 published paper found there was no evidence to support the no saturated fat guidelines, and the alternative, polyunsaturated fats, may have caused harm. A future post will cover this in detail. Basically, Ancel Keys comingled saturated fat and trans fats – and incorrectly concluded that saturated fat and cholesterol were the problem – not understanding the trans-fat problem. By 1987, he seemed to have concluded the cholesterol hypothesis might have been wrong. But this set in motion a half century of nutrition guidelines that may have caused harm.)
- Another who’d been doing everything right before his heart attack: I Went Vegan for One Year to Manage Heart Disease. I had to laugh, after going “vegan” “… the results of my first blood tests came back, Steinbaum was impressed. In just a few months, my LDL had dropped from 160 to 127 mg/dL“. 129 and lower is considered the normal range; mine was 84 when I had a heart attack. To achieve his drop, he had personal consultations with plant-based guru Dr. Michael Greger, whose How Not to Diet book mentions B-12 in just 2 sentences on page 276-277 in the context of vegan eating. Most of us, like me, did not have access to professional advisers (this individual had numerous experts at his fingertips) and long term vegetarian and especially vegan eating, and adults age 40-50 and up, will require professional advice. Most people quit that eating style before encountering the problems. NOTE – the writer of that story is good, notes the B-12 and other nutrient issue, notes that today the cholesterol hypothesis is questioned and admits that as a “vegan” he occasionally eats meat.
- Scientists pinpoint reason why ‘healthy’ people have heart attacks and strokes – and riskiest age “It’s estimated that up to half of all cases of stroke and heart attack occur in people who do not smoke, don’t have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, and do not have diabetes. ” Says “inflammation” and biomarkers of inflammation should be examined, and that some people should start taking statins by age 40 ….
TO BE CONTINUED
