WHY DO FOLKS DIE, WHILE RECOVERING FROM A HEART ATTACK?

New PAPER: re. MORTALITY AFTER HEART ATTACK

I just received a recent paper, entitled “Association of Financial Strain With Mortality Among Older US Adults Recovering From an Acute Myocardial Infarction“, In JAMA Intern Med. Published online February 21, 2022, doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.8569, By Jason R. Falvey, PT, DPT, PhD¹; Alexandra M. Hajduk, PhD, MPH²; Christopher R. Keys, JD³; et al Sarwat I. Chaudhry, MD⁴ .

The paper reads as follows:
“Between 5% and 7% of all older adults in the US report severe financial strain, defined as substantial difficulty meeting monthly needs.¹
Severe financial strain among older adults is associated with lower medication adherence,² which may negatively affect recovery for older adults following an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). **
However, the relationships between financial strain and AMI outcomes for older adults have not been evaluated. In this cohort study, we hypothesized severe financial strain would be associated with elevated mortality risk following an AMI.”

It continues:
“After adjustment, severe financial strain was associated with a 61% increase in 180-day mortality risk (hazard ratio [HR], 1.61; 95% CI, 1.07-2.41) compared with those with no strain. Moderate financial strain was not associated with mortality (HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.78-1.39).Feb 21, 2022″.

** My “take’ on this conundrum is as follows:
This is nothing to do with the patient’s failing to take pills.
Please see an explanation of the increased mortality in the text box, below !

AN ACUTE MI, PLUS SEVERE FINANCIAL STRAIN, CAUSES STRESS which results in INCREASED CORTISOL. Throughout the body, the high cortisol instantly produces  DEIODINASE #1 BLOCKADE, PLUS DEIODINASE #3 ACTIVATION.  This makes T3 production stop inside the cells, so there is CATASTROPHIC REDUCTION OF INTRACELLULAR TRIIODOTHYRONINE (T3).  With insufficient T3 in the cells, the effect is  CARDIOMYOCYTE (HEART-MUSCLE CELL) PARALYSIS AND HEART FAILURE Not only that: intracellular hypothyroidism happens all over, with resulting MULTIPLE ORGAN WEAKENING, then DEATH

MESSAGE

When you have a heart attack, the shock, worry and stress of thinking about what has happened to your body is enough to raise your Cortisol.

High cortisol reduces Thyroid3 production inside all the cells in your body.

If you have anything else to worry about (? your will, your job, your cash flow, your kids ?), the total stress can drop the Thyroid3 in your cells to almost zero.
Then you have intracellular hypothyroidism.

Intracellular hypothyroidism affects everything in the body, producing mild, moderate or severe symptoms which may include fatigue, heightened anxiety, “fuzzy thinking”, memory loss, insomnia, constipation, and weakness of all muscles, including the muscles that drive food through your bowel (hence the constipation) and the big muscle which is your heart.

Heart muscle weakness of hypothyroidism, which is a Takotsubo-type cardiomyopathy, can be mild and transient, or enough to cause heart failure.

SO, regardless of whether you have financial problems or not, you should check your T3/rT3 thyroid balance after a heart attack.

If your T3/reverse T3 turns out to be under 20 (which is more likely if the rT3 is over 13), your heart muscle is at risk.
The problem is fixable with T3 pills.(click here, to go to my blog post, “More about Cardiomyopathy” and read the last two paragraphs).

Note that stress-free people recover from their attack without any difficulty, because stress relief corrects the thyroid balance (as it does in stress cardiomyopathy, AKA Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy). However there is no other way of quantifying your stress and also, checking the T3/rT3 balance, along with your other blood tests, is easy.

REFERENCES
Instead of the usual references, I have inserted links.
Note that there are 3 links to cardiomyopathy articles, including one in my blog. Everybody should know about this condition, so PLEASE have a look at them all.