What Can Be Learned from the Death of Billy Mays

by Jeff

We’ve had a rash of untimely deaths among celebrities lately.  While Michael Jackson’s death was shocking at first, as the details of his life and drug use during the last twelve months are being made public, his death seems less surprising.

But immediately on the heels of Jackson’s death came word that television infomercial star Billy Mays had also died.  Initially there was speculation that the luggage that hit Mays in the head during a rough airplane landing hours before his death was somehow responsible, but the initial autopsy findings showed no head trauma and that his heart was likely to blame for his death.

Dr. Vernard Adams, Hillsborough County Medical Examiner, said that the autopsy did reveal hypertensive and arteriosclerotic heart disease, and that either one of these would be capable of producing a sudden disturbance in the electrical systems of the heart and cause death.

Hypertensive heart disease is what results from having high blood pressure for an extended period of time. ^[1]

Why Is High Blood Pressure Bad?

The term “high blood pressure” is quite literal.  Like a garden hose being fed by a fire hydrant, it means that the pressure of the volume of blood coursing through a patient’s arteries and veins is greater than it should be.  If this overpressure of a patient’s circulatory system goes on for years, those arteries and veins become scarred, hardened and less elastic. ^[2]

Worse, the heart has to work that much harder to push against that pressure to deliver life-giving oxygen and nutrients to the rest of your body.  Because it’s the heart’s left ventricle that does the work of pushing blood throughout the body, that ventricle is the one you often hear referred to when a doctor describes a thickening of the ventricle wall.  Like a weight lifter pumping iron, the left ventricle is getting disproportionately large because it has to work harder than the right ventricle (which sends oxygen-depleted blood to the lungs for a recharge) to do it’s job.  At autopsy Billy Mays heart weighed over 500 grams, while a normal male heart weighs about 300 grams. ^[3]

This imbalance and thickening of the left ventricle wall can lead to several problems, one of which is what Dr. Adams mentioned, a sudden disturbance in the electrical system of the heart capable of causing death.

What Causes High Blood Pressure?

Believe it or not, in 90-95% of cases, the cause is unknown.^[4] This is called essential or primary hypertension.  For the remaining cases, the cause can be traced back to either a kidney abnormality, aortic abnormality or a narrowing of certain arteries, meaning more force (or pressure) is required to push blood through and beyond those narrow passages.

How Can I Lower My Blood Pressure?

Though the cause of most cases of high blood pressure is unknown, what is known is how you can lower your high blood pressure:

• Eat a healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables.
• Exercise regularly.
• If you’re overweight, lose the extra pounds.^[5]
• If you use tobacco products, stop.
• Cut back on your sodium, caffeine and alcohol intake.  Each of these add millimeters of mercury to your blood pressure reading.
• Relax.  Meditation, soothing activities can help to reduce blood pressure.

I Can’t Relax.  In Fact, I Suffer From Anxiety.  Can Anxiety Make My Blood Pressure Worse?

According to Mayo Clinic emeritus hypertension specialist Sheldon G. Sheps, MD, it can.  ^[6] Anxiety can cause temporary spikes in blood pressure that taken alone don’t harm the heart or circulatory system.  But if anxiety strikes daily or on most days, the long-term effect on the heart and arteries is much like that of someone who has chronic high blood pressure.  What makes the problem of anxiety (as it relates to blood pressure) worse is one of the more popular classes of drugs used to treat anxiety, SSRIs, can also cause blood pressure to go up.

What Is Ateriosclerotic Heart Disease?

Also known as Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), it is the narrowing and hardening of blood vessels from the buildup of fatty materials and plaque on blood vessel walls.  It is the leading cause of death in the United States.

So to help avoid a fate like Billy Mays, manage your weight, diet and activity level, check your blood pressure often, and get any new arrhythmias checked out by your physician.

References