Tim Russert

Since I wrote this piece I have noticed many other commentaries on this particular event. We are a trange people on that we wish so desperately to peer into the lives of those we have been led to believe are celebrities. Russert is no different than any of us, he just had different circumstances.

I looked at the 'search results' for articles about Mr. Russert. Our post is in the Top 10. Another in this same group is reporting diabetes. A third provided lab results and in terms of the A1C results, Russert is quite well below the range for diabetes. He did not have diabetes as many self-agrandizing 'health pundits' have alleged.

What he did have is elevated triglycerides.

Regardless of other markers, the most serious risk to your health is elevated triglycerides. Cholesterol issues are generally mythical, and are just another "condition" created to sell a drug.

In mainstream medicine today it is the insurance carriers and the pharmaceutical companies that manage the end users through people that are classified as licensed health care providers.

What I hope this event brings is that my readers and others will wake up to the fact that you MUST be involved in your own health, and you must question authority: Your life depends on it.
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It amazed me that so many people rushed to comment on Tim Russert's sudden death. I am sure it was an extreme shock to those who were with him at work and his family. Traumatic loss is always very difficult to face.

More trauma ensues when commentators with little background in health care make such glib comments as that from another "health writer". Telling all his gullible readers that he could tell Russert was not "controlling anything with exercise" just by looking at him, this writer showed his ignorance. He also commented in such a way as to make you believe Russert "was relying primarily on medication to solve his coronary heart disease problems...".

I work from an old fashioned paradigm, it is called ethics.

Whether a health care professional or a writer, ethics should apply, however in many cases today it's just a valuable guide not often present.

Having studied pharmacology and biochemistry in depth as an undergraduate and graduate student, as well as through continuing professional education, I have a much better understanding of the most likely drugs prescribed to Russert. If in fact he was prescribed a statin drug, readers of Natural Health News should know that the statin class of drugs is known to cause sudden death.

Russert could have been prescribed calcium channel blockers. This is another drug class that was almost removed from the market by the FDA some years ago because of the risk of sudden death.

No one knows the list of his prescription drugs except his physician and pharmacist, and probably his family, and the medical examiner.

Riskier is to think that a drug interaction profile was not developed for Mr. Russert which would indicate issue that may have promoted the incident causing his death. Also a risk would be not to have developed a nutrient depletion profile related to the prescribed drugs. Many of the commonly prescribed drugs in the standards of care for cardiovascular disease actually deplete nutrients essential to heart health. Our office has a specific service that provides this information, which we offer to physicians and the public.

This clearly is an example of why people who seek medical care in the mainstream or any other system MUST question the "authority". Your life may depend on it.

And you know, maybe Mr. Russert had taken up walking. I noticed he had looked much better in recent weeks than in the past, but then I have a trained eye.

What I also noticed that might be missed by an untrained eye is a facial feature of Russert's that might have indicated a reason for the cardiomyopathy or 'enlarged heart' a news article stated he had. This might indicate, if in fact this was diagnosed, that he might have suffered with hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism can lead a person to develop an enlarged heart, and too often, mainstream medicine, relying only on lineal thinking, often fails to look at the correlation between thyroid function (hyper and hypo) and heart health.

And I do recommend magnesium (one specific form) as it improves many health concerns.

Tim Russert’s Death a Warning for Millions
Monday, June 16, 2008
By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard

The death of NBC's Tim Russert on Friday at the age of 58 is shining the national spotlight on sudden cardiac arrest.

In the week when the government announced that life expectancy in the United States had risen to an all-time high of 78 and deaths from heart disease were declining, Russert’s death, which occurred when he collapsed at the network’s Washington office, was a sad warning that fatal heart attacks can – and often do – strike without warning. Many victims of sudden cardiac arrest, like Russert, cannot be resuscitated.

Even though Russert’s death was shocking and sudden, there were ominous signs. Russert had been diagnosed with coronary artery disease and diabetes. Both are risk factors for a sudden heart attack. In addition, he was overweight and in a high-stress job, two additional factors that raised his risk. And although Russert may not have known, an autopsy revealed he also suffered from an enlarged heart.

Russert didn’t die alone. About 850 people in the U.S. also died Friday of sudden cardiac arrest, and 310,000 die each year. Their disease didn’t occur overnight. Fat deposits (plaque) and inflammation had been building for decades. The plaque cracked or tore, and the body’s efforts to repair the damage caused a clot which blocked an artery and caused sudden heart attack. Dr. Michael Newman, Russert’s personal physician, confirmed Russert died of a massive heart attack that occurred when a clot ruptured in his left anterior descending coronary artery and caused the fatal heart attack.

Russert probably believed he was taking good care of himself. He had no obvious symptoms of heart disease, and he was taking medication and exercising. He also easily passed a stress test two months ago.

But what Russert didn’t know was what probably killed him, says acclaimed neurosurgeon and health advocate Dr. Russell Blaylock. “Chances are the medicines he was taking to reduce his chances of having a life-ending heart attack – probably statins – weren’t helping him at all. Statins don’t protect against heart attacks. And he didn’t know that the lack of one nutrient could have cost him his life.

“The number one cause of sudden cardiac death is magnesium deficiency,” Blaylock says. “Cardiac patients and those with diabetes have the lowest magnesium levels of all. Since Russert had both heart disease and diabetes, he was probably deficient in magnesium. A bad diet and stress would have further depleted the magnesium in his body.

“People who are deficient in magnesium are most likely to have sudden cardiac arrest, and when they do arrest, and they are harder to resuscitate. Many simply can’t be resuscitated.”

To avoid a fate similar to Russert’s, Dr. Blaylock advises a magnesium supplement every day “Magnesium reduces inflammation in the walls of the arteries and veins and it slightly thins blood,” he says. “If you do have a clot, magnesium prevents the heart from going into spasm. About half of the people who die from sudden cardiac arrest die from arrhythmia and magnesium prevents that. It is also essential that diabetics control their sugar levels.

“If Russert was low in magnesium, an inexpensive supplement could have saved his life.”

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