Did you read in the papers about Calvin Lee, the CEO of Deutsche Telecom? He was a triathlete and described by his triathlon team-mates as “ the fittest among us all.“
Calvin died suddenly on Sunday, while taking part in a triathlon.
With that Calvin joins a group made up of Thaddeus Chong, a national triathlete, SAF Capt Ho Si Qui, Bernard Tan and Ho Wai Piew and others.
What do these men have in common?
They all died of heart failure.
They died during or right after a taking part in strenous sports.
They were below 45 years of age.
Calvin, at 42, was by all accounts, athletic and fit, with no apparent health conditions. He was close to finishing his race in the triathlon when he was seen struggling, and despite efforts of medical personnel, died of cardiac failure.
Thaddeus, 17, a national triathlete died of heart failure after completing the 2007 SEA Games time trials. Si Qiu, 25, collapsed of a cardiac arrest after completing the Singapore Bay run, athlete Bernard Tan died of heart failure and, triathlete Ho Wai Piew, 40, died of a heart attack during the New Balance corporate triathlon.
What’s going on here? Seemingly healthy men, all below 45 years, even a 17 year old! Dying! Of heart failure! Isn’t exercise supposed to be good for you? Isn’t heart failure a problem of older people?
Cardiovascular disease, which includes heart disease and strokes, kills about 1 million people a year in the US, divided quite equally between men and women, with slightly more women dying every year.
Cardiovascular disease appears later in women, usually after 55, hence isn’t seen as being so tragic as young healthy men dying. But the average human lifespan is supposed to be in the mid 70’s. Even dying at 55, cheats you of 20 years. 20 years of so many things you want to do.
The link between cardiovascular disease and strokes is that both diseases involve the heart, blood vessels and the blood. These comprise what is called the cardio-vascular system of the body.
The underlying condition that leads to cardiovascular disease being the top killer is atherosclerosis.
This is where plaque deposits in arterial walls to and constrict blood flow. The plaque not only deposits in the heart arteries but the entire 75,000 miles blood vessels that we all have.
Atherosclerosis is a chronic condition that typically starts from childhood. Not many people know that, its a condition that starts ticking, from childhood.
Atherosclerosis is the deposit of fatty material, cholesterol, cellular waste, calcium and other deposits that thicken the inner lining of your arteries, this deposit is called plaque.
Plaque causes such severe injury to our blood vessels, that the body’s immune system sends special blood cells called platelets to repair the damage.
Platelets are ‘sticky’, and over time, more deposit and plaque accumulates and thickens and clogs up the arteries. This causes the pathway through which blood flows, to narrow, and the arteries to be ‘stiff’’ and ‘hard’.
The blood has to huff and puff through the vessels. Think of water trying to get through water pipes that are corroded and clogged up. Now, there is less oxygen and nutrients that can get to the cells in the body.
A clot may suddenly break off from this clog, and head to the brain, causing a stroke, or it flows to the heart, causing a heart attack.
Do you see the connection between strokes and heart attacks? It starts with atherosclerosis, the clogging of your blood vessels, and that condition starts when you are a child.
Doctors today will tell you to eat healthy and exercise. Sure, weren’t those men exercising? But, you’ll notice that a doctor’s role tends to be after the fact and curative in nature.
That is, they step in with pharmaceutical drugs and surgical procedures after you have developed a condition. The analogy is like a mechanics who comes to fix your car AFTER it breaks down. But before that, usually there is an indicator light, like my car, used to keep flashing the orange ‘ Check engine’ light at me.
Your body, like your car, gives you warning ‘check engine’ messages to try to tell you something is wrong, often in the form of aches and pains, or something else out of the ordinary.
But let’s take a step backwards, even before the ‘check engine’ lights go on, and lets think about the whole area of prevention in the first place rather than cure.
This can be done is through nutrition and health supplements. Nature has given us so much to keep us healthy. Armed with information, we can help nature, help our bodies, help us be healthy and disease free. Let me use cardiovascular health as an example.
In 1998, 3 scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine
- Robert Furchgott, Louis Ignarro and Ferid Murad
They received the prize based on their research on a compound called Nitric Oxide, NO, which has been called the miracle molecule.
They showed that NO, which is produced by the lining of your blood vessels, makes your blood vessels elastic and ‘smooth’, and flexible. In atherosclerosis, you’re not producing enough NO, and the blood vessels become clogged and hardened.
NO must be converted in the body. The body converts an amino acid called L-arginine into NO and that’s how you have to get your NO, through taking Arginine.
Arginine is found in many foods, like meat and the noni fruit, but it is difficult to get the necessary amount of arginine in your daily diet.
You ideally, take Arginine in the form of high quality concentrated supplements, and research has shown improvements in the state of blood vessels after a 3 month supplementation of Arginine.
This example that I’ve given on supplementing with Arginine to help the body produce NO to promote cardiovascular health and prevent atherosclerosis, heart failures and strokes, can be extended to other areas of the body and other supplements. Our body needs various nutrients which we tend not to be able to provide it with in our normal diet and the way to get them is through supplements.
Dr Linus Pauling who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954, and discovered the importance of VIt C in preventing certain diseases, established The Linus Pauling Institute in Oregon.
The institute supports the use of health supplements and provides scientifically accurate information regarding the roles of vitamins, minerals, other nutrients, dietary nutrients, and some foods in preventing disease and promoting health. Anyone wanting more proof of the importance of health supplements need only log into http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/ to be convinced.
I wish you all good health and encourage you to arm yourself with information and health supplements.
