X-Message-Number: 22058
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2003 08:35:58 -0700
Subject: Heart attacks (was Re: CryoNet #22032 - #22040)
References:  <>
From:  (Tim Freeman)

I don't have any special insights into defibrillators, but:

From: "Raphael T. Haftka" <>
>If I want to spend $2500 to decrease my chances of dying suddenly, is
>a defibrillator the best investment? 

Get your cholesterol tested, including your HDL.  Exercise regularly.
Form a stable relationship with someone else with similar interests
and live with them; that way if one of you passes out, the other can
do CPR (or maybe use the defibrillator?) and call for an ambulance.
The two of you should take a CPR course and get formal training to use
the defibrillator if you get one.  Learn the symptoms of heart attacks
so you and your partner will know when to call the ambulance; I read
once that the average delay between a heart attack and when a doctor
gets involved is 4 hours, which is much more than you want.

There are probably supplements you could take.

Watch what the Digital Angel people are up to.  You may soon be able
to wear something that will call an amulance for you if your heart
stops beating.  I know you can buy a panic button that you wear on a
necklace and will make a phone call for you if you push it.  If you're
living alone I don't see how you're going to apply the defibrillator
to yourself, so a panic button might be more effective.  There's a
cheap version that you pay for once from Radio Shack and an expensive
version with a subscription fee that sends people to rescue you if you
don't touch your telephone once a day or so.

Adjust your diet so you aren't overweight.  Don't smoke.  If the heart
attack is most likely to happen only after you age significantly, try
to do calorie restriction to slow the aging.  Don't overdo the CR;
Ben Best has reported heart symptoms as a consequence of overzealous CR.

Most of the useful interventions seem to take time and effort, rather
than money.  I think that's because money is mostly a way to get
someone else to spend time, and you can't really delegate something
like this effectively.  I suppose the straight answer to your question
is to spend the $2500 to delegate other parts of your life (like food
shopping?) so you can have time to pay attention to this other stuff.

-- 
Tim Freeman                                                  
GPG public key fingerprint ECDF 46F8 3B80 BB9E 575D  7180 76DF FE00 34B1 5C78 

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