When heart attacks are that early, it’s often due to hemochromatosis(iron overload), which is genetic and more common in people of Irish and northern European heritage. Takes longer to impact women because menstruation mitigates the impact. Campbell you mught wanna get tested.
My sister just had a pig die. The biggest one they had. Granddaughter fed it a corncob and it choked to death. That was a couple hundred pounds of meat gone to.waste
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Antique causes of death are one of.my favourite things about my old books.
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my dad relied on his family longevity. (ignores his dad who died of pnuemonia in the depression when my dad was 3.) when my dad turned 75 we estiamted he had smoked between 600K and 800K filterfree cigarettes. (camel, no filter) he quit smoking a few years after when he was put on oxygen (the pure O2 fueled plume being his demise was the biggest deterrent) he quit drinking at 54 but had spent the better part of the prior 35 years drinking all day long. he died at 84 of complications stemming from COPD and other stuff. those were not highway miles on the odometer
I definitely do not have that problem (I’ve been donating blood forever, too, which would help… but also I’ve been turned away from donating due to low iron. More than once. Not always due to the “obvious” time of the month)
I have run into the folks with hemochromatosis at the blood centers who often get bled as a treatment and talk w/ them. Many are red-heads (go figure).
I have had EKGs & other tests starting in my 20s. We’re a bit paranoid about this in my family.
Yeah, I love that, too, and covered some of those here:
I first dealt with that when reading Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year, when he goes through the Bills of Mortality, which are chock full of such, so I started looking up some to try to figure them out.
The alcohol thing really seems…complicated. I heard of a few people that died suddenly in their late 30s and early 40s that were “surprise, they were alcoholics.” Of course, I have no actual idea what was on their death certificates. Plenty of stories about people who drank all day for decades like your dad that lived a long life. Personally, I saw my blood pressure creeping up through my 30s on a moderate daily habit - something that would have become a significant heart health risk in my 40s if left untreated.
I am guessing like anything else, one health risk alone does not translate into mortality. But like with everything, the consequences of age also catch up and turn bad habits into health issues.
One thing I have wondered a bit about is if tylenol plays a role in many of the liver related alcohol deaths. Its a really bad mixture, and I have seen enough “smart” people pop them to deal with a hangover that I’d not be surprised if that was regular thing for many.
Alcohol poisoning (and it takes a lot of alcohol quickly) can kill you quick.
But some people are powerhouse alcoholics and do kill themselves of cirrhosis or other liver disease very young.
Some historical deaths: [list is way too short, and I don’t edit Wikipedia, on principle.]
a few I picked out for young ages:
Dave Alexander 10 February 1975 (aged 27) Ann Arbor, Michigan Alcohol-related pancreatitis and pulmonary edema[23] Musician
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 9 September 1901 (aged 36) Saint-André-du-Bois, France Alcoholism Painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator
Helen Morgan 9 October 1941 (aged 41) Chicago, Illinois, United States Alcohol-related liver cirrhosis Singer, actress
Dylan Thomas 9 November 1953 (aged 39) New York City, United States Alcoholism Writer
Billie Holiday 17 July 1959 (aged 44) New York City, United States Cirrhosis Singer
|Barbara Payton|8 May 1967 (aged 39)|San Diego, United States|Liver failure|Actress|
|Shailendra|14 December 1966 (aged 43)|Mumbai, India|Alcohol-related liver cirrhosis|Lyricist|
I should probably update the following:
It’s splitting hairs a bit, but my read of most of those deaths is that it was generally something (drugs or another condition) + alcohol rather than strictly alcohol and the liver going out at that age. It’s a high risk lifestyle and one that I don’t think is well communicated by doctors as they tend to focus on things like blood tests to detect liver issues.
My FIL has cirrhosis from his 30-40 year of drinking…but he almost died from an internal bleed related to alcohol. I guess I wonder in all of the COVID era data and elevated non-COVID mortality that followed that there was a lot more mortality indirectly related to alcohol and other substance issues buried in the statistics.
I guess the main question is if “alcohol related causes” as captured on death certificates and published by the CDC undercounts the true number.
A lot of the worst ones have indian reservations (NM specially)
The death rate in those from alcohol and suicide is probably the highest you can find in the US.
Their hair has rust in it??
What makes hair blue, then?
I should dig into it more – they’ve got the 2023 finalized numbers out now at the CDC, so I was going to refresh my deck & look at that stuff, but I’m at my ma’s house and can’t record videos while I’m here.
So I may as well get into some detail like the alcohol deaths. I could look at the detailed causes of death, the age distributions, etc.
Wow. Covid and suicide correlated quite a bit for natives. Wonder why.
Q: Do you, or anyone, think COVID spurred any of this, or is the timing coincidental?
Sure, this is just coincidental
Now, the specific mechanism is up for grabs – I’ve got multiple cause-effect pathways.
- social isolation meant people went to drugs & alcohol to fill empty hours, especially if they lived alone
- if you lived alone, you were less likely to be found until it was too late to save you from the OD due to lockdowns, etc
- drug/alcohol addiction prevention/treatment programs went to Zoom… and that’s super-ineffectual
Age.
I don’t have the article handy as I read it a few years ago, but I know a bunch of the blame for the increase in accidental ODs was attributed to people using on there own during the peak of Covid and so there was no one there to render aid/call for help if something went wrong. Thus people died instead of getting aid.
I think the other issue has been a pretty big uptick in the addition of Fentynl to drugs which has been causing lots of deaths.
right – there is a bend in the curve starting around 2015/2016, and that’s when fentanyl overtook other drugs as the main cause of drug-related deaths.
but the increase was not as large as in 2020.