Singer Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, after being rushed to a hospital suffering from cardiac arrest.
Cardiac arrest is the sudden loss of cardiac function, when the heart abruptly stops beating. A person whose heart has stopped will lose consciousness and stop normal breathing, and their pulse and blood pressure will be absent. Unless resuscitative efforts are begun immediately, cardiac arrest leads to death within a few minutes. This is often referred to by doctors as “sudden death” or “sudden cardiac death (SCD).”
Ventricular fibrillation is the most common cause of cardiac arrest. Ventricular fibrillation occurs when the normal, regular, electrical activation of heart muscle contraction is replaced by chaotic electrical activity that causes the heart to stop beating and pumping blood to the brain and other parts of the body. Permanent brain damage and death can occur unless the flow of blood to the brain is restored within five minutes. Heart attack is the most common cause of ventricular fibrillation. Less common causes of cardiac arrest include respiratory arrest (loss of breathing function), choking, trauma, electrocution, and drowning.
Introduction to sudden cardiac arrest
A natural disaster hits, the power goes off and the lights go out. It’s a common scene that plays out during hurricane and tornado seasons, and it’s very similar in trying to explain sudden cardiac arrest. The heart sustains an insult, the electricity is short circuited, the heart can’t pump, and the body dies.
The heart is an electrical pump, where the electricity is generated in special pacemaker cells in the upper chamber, or atrium, of the heart. This electrical spark is carried through pathways in the heart so that all the muscle cells contract at once and produce a heart beat. This pumps blood through the heart valves and into all the organs of the body so that they can do their work.
This mechanism can break down in a variety of ways, but the final pathway in sudden death is the same: the electrical system is irritated and fails to produce electrical activity that causes the heart to beat. The heart muscle can’t supply blood to the body, particularly the brain, and the body dies. Ventricular fibrillation (V Fib) is the most common reason for sudden death in patients. Without a coordinated electrical signal, the bottom chambers of the heart (ventricles) stop beating and instead, jiggle like Jello. Ventricular Fibrillation is treated with electrical shock, but for it to be effective, the shock usually needs to happen within less than four to six minutes, not only for it to be effective, but also to minimize brain damage from lack of blood and oxygen supply. Automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) are commonly available in public places to allow almost anybody to treat sudden death. Less commonly, the heart can just stop beating. The absence of a heart beat is known as asystole (asystole: a=no + systole=beat).
What are the causes of sudden cardiac arrest?
Sudden death is most often caused by heart disease. When blood vessels narrow, the heart muscle can become irritated because of lack of blood supply. In heart attack (acute myocardial infarction), a blood vessel becomes completely blocked by a blood clot, and there is enough irritability of the muscle to cause ventricular fibrillation. In fact, the reason many people with chest pain are admitted to the hospital is to monitor their heart rate and rhythm for signs that might lead to ventricular fibrillation. Sudden death may also be the first presentation of heart disease.
Congestive heart failure and heart valve problems, like aortic stenosis (narrowing of the aortic valve) also increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
Cardiomyopathy is a broad category of heart disease where the heart muscle does not contract properly for whatever reason. Often it is ischemic, where part of the heart muscle doesn’t get an adequate blood supply for a prolonged period of time and no longer can efficiently pump blood. People whose ejection fractions (the amount of blood pumped out of the heart with each heart beat) is less than 30% are at greater risk for sudden death (a normal ejection fraction is above 50%). In some people, cardiomyopathy may develop in the absence of ischemic heart disease.
Inflammation of the heart muscle, known as myocarditis (myo=muscle + card=heart + itis= inflammation), can also cause rhythm disturbances. Diseases like sarcoidosis, amyloidosis, and infections can cause inflammation of the heart muscle.
Some people are born with electrical conducting systems that are faulty, which place them at higher risk for rhythm disturbances. Some are due to the wiring, or electrical conduction system, like Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, while others are due to the structural basic structural problems within the heart, like Marfan syndrome.
Pulmonary embolus, a blood clot to the lung, can also cause sudden death. Clots form in the leg or arm and may break off and flow to the lung where they decrease the lung’s ability to get oxygen from the air to the body. Risk factors for blood clots include surgery, prolonged immobilization (for example, hospitalization, long car rides or plane trips), trauma, or certain diseases like cancer.
Blunt chest trauma, such is in a motor vehicle accident, may result in ventricular fibrillation.
The University of Pittsburgh and University of California @ Santa Barbara published a study suggesting that fat stored in the hips and butt are a privileged source of nuerodevelopmental resources. The study asserts that upper body fat particularly abdominal fat has negative effects and lower body fat (hips, butt) have positive effects on long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) that are essential for brain development. They used waist to hip ratio(WHR) as a marker for how much fat is located around a woman’s waist compared to how much is around a her hips, thighs and butt. They used the WHR to predict cognitive ability in women and their children. They used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey which included data on body fat, body mass index (BMI), waist & hip circumference, results of cognitive tests of adults & children, demographics such as education levels, income, age, race and etc.
They analyzed the data controlling for factors that correlate with higher intelligence and found that women with lower WHR and their kids have significantly higher cognitive test scores and teenage mothers with lower WHR and their kids are protected from cognitive decrements associated with teen births.
mega-3 fatty acids are the main LCPUSFA involved in brain development. Omega-3’s contain DHA and ALA and are essential fatty acids because they can not be made from the body. They have to come from food or supplements. ALA can be converted to DHA by the body. ALA mainly comes from flax seed, walnuts, olive oils etc, while DHA is primarily found in fatty fish. LCPUSFA’s make up 20% of the dry weight of the human brain. DHA is critical for fetal and infant brain development which is one of the reasons they add it to infant formula while it is found naturally in breast milk. A recent meta-analysis report estimates that a child’s IQ increases by 0.13 point for every 100mg increase in daily maternal prenatal intake of DHA. A study in England showed a positive relationship between a mother’s prenatal consumption of seafood (high in DHA) and her child’s verbal IQ.
Gluteofemoral(hips/butt) fat has higher amounts of LCPUFA’s than abdominal and visceral fat. In comparison, abdominal fat decreases the amount of a desaturase enzyme that is involved in the synthesis of important LCPUFA’s from dietary precursers. Other studies showed that 60-80% of LCPUFA’s in human breast milk come from maternal fat stores, rather than from the mother’s current dietary intake, presumably because of the rapid rate of infant brain development relative to limited dietary supplies of LCPUFA’s.
The most important points of this study is that Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial for the brain development of fetuses, infants and in adults as well and also that having excessive abdominal fat reduces the availability of those fatty acids and raise health risks in general. Low levels of Omega-3 fatty acids have been implicated in contributing to ADD, depression, anxiety disorders, aggression, hypertension and etc. So make sure that you are taking in enough omega-3’s especially if you are pregnant. Mommies, some children’s vitamins now contain DHA.
The Internet dating biz offers thousands of tips and techniques promising success with women but almost none teach you what works on today’s woman. Most of these hucksters promote outdated old-fogey stuff that just no longer works. Here is how to date your dream girl of the moment.
The typical sales headline reads: “How To Date Hot Women!”
They promise to teach you how to score with the female that turns every head when she walks by. You know the type, she makes guys drool. These marketers never mention that the girl-next-door type, chances are, would be a much hotter girl for a relationship.
The real question for you is: “Who is the girl you are dreaming about at the moment?”
If it’s the super-model type, you can have her. If it’s the average girl, you can have her too. It doesn’t matter how she looks to other guys, it only matters if she “trips your trigger.” The girl who does that for you, is the one you can have if you go about it using the right techniques.
This even applies to the girl who dumped you for someone else because, obviously, your technique was not good enough to keep her hooked. With the right techniques, any woman will be begging you to come back to her. To her, you will be a brand new man!
Almost every guy that you know wants to date a hot girl but, and you know this is true, 99% of them never do. They end up dating someone who will date just about anyone or someone who has a crush on them. Usually that someone is not in your dream girl category. Am I right?
Why do you think that’s true?
The answer is, beautiful girls intimidate most guys. The average guy thinks too lowly of himself so he never steps up to the plate. He just sits in the dugout and watches the star players do all the scoring with these beauties.
Tell me the truth. When you see a woman like this, you have a fleeting fantasy about what it would be like to be with her, to hold her, to kiss her, or just to hold hands with her. Your breath shortens a bit and your heart pounds a bit and it ends there. When it comes time to step up to the plate and swing the bat, you tell yourself you will surely be a loser.
Is this familiar? Sure it is.
Now here is a little secret that will give you an edge over 99% of other men:
99% of men are just like you are at this moment. They make excuses for their lack of courage when it comes time to communicate with a very attractive woman. Do you see how this can give you an edge?
Would you like to be among the 1% of men who aren’t afraid of being rejected and who know just how to get a date with their dream girl of the moment? These are the guys that know, even if they don’t score with every dream girl, the odds are still in their favor. They know that, if they go to bat enough times, they are going to hit home runs. And, they do!
A good salesperson will not quit until they get the seventh “No” when they ask the closing question. That’s why they are successful.
Get the point?
In order to have a rich dating life, you have to step up to the plate and swing the bat. You have to keep asking the closing questions.
Did you know that “Babe” Ruth held the record for strike-outs at the same time as holding the record for most home runs in his career? The “Babe” swung at even the bad pitches. He could golf the baseball out of the park!
Here is the #1 reason that most men do not approach women: It is because of a mental block. You are likely suffering from the same problem if you find yourself paralyzed and unable to approach your dream girl of the moment. Let’s solve your problem right now.
The first thing you need to do is to learn a new way of thinking about yourself and all women.
This involves convincing yourself that you are really a worthy guy, someone any woman would be lucky to know on an intimate basis. This is an exercise in raising your self esteem which, may I say, is pretty low when it comes to women. Try these self-talk points or make up your own:
• “I can have a relationship with almost any woman I choose”
• “Because a woman is beautiful doesn’t mean I can’t have her.”
• “I love all women and they are attracted to me, too.”
• “No woman is too classy for me.”
• “Most guys are afraid to try to date beautiful women. I’m not afraid.”
Say these talking points to yourself, out loud if possible, many times a day.
Believe it or not, adopting a positive attitude about yourself and how you view women will make you more attractive and interesting to women. Women read men on an intuitive level, “vibes” if you will, and your high self esteem will show through without you uttering a word.
You may find this second trick takes some hit and miss practice.
You need to discover there is a proven way to successfully communicate. The major problem you have had with approaching attractive women is you simply did not know how to flirt with them in the right ways.
You have watched other guys employ old lame techniques and get rejected time and again. And, without one of the successful 1% to teach you the right way, you will remain among the failing 99%.
It’s a proven fact, creating a connection comes down to one very powerful technique: Knowing how to flirt.
Each woman will respond to a certain flirting technique. If you know how to flirt with each type of woman, you will reach them at a deep level that most guys fail to understand.
You see, 99% of guys fail because they are not focused on the girl and what she needs.
Let’s smash some outdated ideas here.
At first, flirting is never about asking her personal questions. And, it is never about establishing compatibility. In fact, flirting can only be quickly successful by avoiding statements that guys often use to find a common bond.
No, actually, the flirting technique is about creating intimacy. It’s that delicate balance between teasing a woman, while making her want your focused attention. And, whatever you do, do not compliment her at this stage of the game. That’s lame and will not work in 99% of the cases. She will see right through it or might even have low self esteem herself and simply will not believe you are sincere. You will be surprised at how many really beautiful women have low self esteem!
Instead, boldly approach her and employ methods that will create that emotional connection that you must have for all successful flirting conversations! You’ll find that low-key teasing and light conversation are the best ways to attract and date your dream girl of the moment. In other words: Don’t be so serious!
