THIS MAY TRIGGER! ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE A STRONG HOLD ON THEIR ANXIETY

[ashcrash85]

Oh my God...I was really really really stupid and read this article in my paper. It's about a middle aged man who was working towards having defibrillators placed into the local park.

He was in top shape and healthy. Then one day during a bike ride he went into cardiac arrest. There was no history of heart disease and a doctor was later quoted as saying that a great many of cardiac arrests occur in people who do not have any markers for or have heart disease.


I am scared out of my mind right now! Help!!

[jenniferharper]

That is scary!  Just a litttle tip though.  Even when you put may trigger anxiety, a lot of people are still going to look.  It's kinda like google.  I would suggest if it worries you instead of posting someting that may make people panic, just msg Sixpack or someone that has beat anxiety in the group to answer any questions.

[Pan]

Well, where I live the roads are like Wacky Races and I am more concerned about ending up under the back end of a bus when I'm cycling to work rather than having a heart attack.

I suppose the point is that whilst we worry all day long about those things we fear we actually dismiss far more realistic dangers.  The mind is very selective when it comes to this sort of thing.

[marc]

My friend who is a board certified internist/cardiologist has told me that in adults, typically
cardiac arrest had an underlying causative agent. He said typically it is undiagnosed
heart disease. He also said that as many as 30-35% of all people who have cardiac arrest,
have had a recent myocardial infarction. He also said some cancers, drug overdoses, infections, etc.,
cause this to occur also.

[gridder]

I look at it like this -- I could get hit by a bus crossing the street tomorrow, too. You have to live your life. We are all going to die, and maybe in the scheme of things going out quickly like that isn't the worst thing, really? We are not going to be able to control how we die for the most part. . . if we HA'ers could give up an illusion of control about that we'd be a lot better off.

[wowthisismetoaT]

There is a story like this for absolutely every single ailment you can imagine. My big thing is H1N1 right now and of course, the stories about people who have symptoms and die within 24 hours scare me the most.  The fact is, those stories make the news because they are just so out there for what is normal.  Don't live life waiting to be a statistic.