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Showing posts with the label sudden cardiac arrest

Cortisol response to stress is much more elevated with ingestion of glucose than with protein or fat

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Cortisol is a hormone that does a number of different things; a jack of all trades among hormones, so to speak. It tells the liver to produce glucose, preventing hypoglycemia. It also tells the liver to synthesize glycogen, which is in some ways the opposite of producing glucose. It tells the stomach to secret gastric acid. It is an anti-diuretic hormone. It suppresses the immune system, which is why it is frequently used to reduce inflammation, and treat allergies and various autoimmune diseases. It jump-starts an increase in free fatty acids in circulation, thus helping provide an important source of energy for endurance exercise. Cortisol, together with epinephrine (a.k.a. adrenaline), even contributes to the creation of surprise-induced memories. It is because of this action of cortisol that Americans reading this post, especially those who lived in the East Coast in 2001, remember vividly where they were, what they were doing, and who they were with, when they first heard about th...

Is heavy physical activity a major trigger of death by sudden cardiac arrest? Not in Oregon

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The idea that heavy physical activity is a main trigger of heart attacks is widespread. Often endurance running and cardio-type activities are singled out. Some people refer to this as “death by running”. Good cardiology textbooks, such as the Mayo Clinic Cardiology , tend to give us a more complex and complete picture. So do medical research articles that report on studies of heart attacks based on comprehensive surveys. Reddy and colleagues (2009) studied sudden cardiac arrest events followed by death from 2002 to 2005 in Multnomah County in Oregon. This study was part of the ongoing Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study. Multnomah County has an area of 435 square miles, and had a population of over 677 thousand at the time of the study. The full reference to the article and a link to a full-text version are at the end of this post. The researchers grouped deaths by sudden cardiac arrests (SCAs) according to the main type of activity being performed before the event. Below is how...