Tim Russert: The Risk of Heart Disease

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Amid the outpouring of tributes over the death Friday of political commentator Tim Russert, the popular host of NBC’s Meet the Press, came the grim reminder that sudden heart attack can strike at any time, with little or no warning.

Russert, widely admired for his humor and his hard-driving interviews of the great and near-great, died while preparing for Sunday’s show. Efforts to revive him at his office and at the hospital failed.

Michael Newman, Russert’s physician, said the journalist had been diagnosed previously with diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD—the buildup of plaque in the arteries). Russert had been on a regimen of medication and exercise and had passed a stress test in April. Newman said an autopsy showed that Russert had an enlarged heart and significant CAD, leading to a blocked artery that cut off blood flow to the heart muscle.

According to figures from government agencies and the American Heart Association, 16 million Americans have coronary artery disease, and one in five U.S. deaths is caused by heart attack related to the condition. In 2008 an estimated 770,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack and about 430,000 will have a recurrent attack.

Russert’s death at the relatively young age of 58 surprised many people, but cardiovascular crises can occur at almost any age. While 870,00 Americans died of some form of cardiovascular disease in 2004, 148,000 were under 65. And the estimated average age of those who die from a sudden cardiac arrest is about 60.

In a sudden cardiac attack, the heart abruptly stops beating (in a heart attack, the heart is still functioning but blood flow is slowed). Unless an electric shock with a defibrillator restores the heartbeat to a normal rhythm within a few minutes, the attack is almost always fatal, according to the AHA. Some heart patients with arrhythmia—like Vice President Cheney—have implanted defibrillators.

The death rate from heart attack has declined in recent years thanks to decreased smoking and to greater awareness about cardiovascular disease and the warning signs of heart attack. But doctors are very concerned about the nation’s epidemic of obesity, which is linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and CAD—all potential causes of heart attack.

Other risk factors include age, gender, race and family history—things that can’t be changed. But medical experts emphasize that lifestyle is something people can control. Regular exercise, a nutritious diet, weight control and no smoking—they’re the first line of defense in preventing an attack like the one that took the life of Tim Russert.