Shane Warne’s death from a suspected heart attack at the age of 52 has come as a wake-up call for middle aged-men across the country, many of whom took to WhatsApp groups Saturday morning to question their sense of mortality.
Although the exact causes of Warne’s death are unclear, the cricketing legend was a well-known smoker who battled with his weight and diet. Indeed, in one of his final Twitter posts, from February 28, Warne said he was 10 days into what he called “operation shred”.
Included in the post was a photo of himself “from a few years ago” looking toned. “The goal by July is to get back to this shape from a few years ago!” he said. “Let’s go”.
Doctors are now anticipating a surge in the number of health check appointments, as concerned middle-aged men ask, “could I be next?”
The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute’s Associate Professor Andre La Gerche, the institute’s head of sports cardiology, said men in particular had “absolutely become complacent” after five decades of enormous improvements linked to lifestyle changes, better screening, earlier treatment of chest pain and other medical advances.
“It’s really been a spectacularly successful campaign,” Professor La Gerche said. “But at the end of that, we’re still left with the number one killer being heart disease. But in people’s mind, it’s sort of something that’s been solved.”
Professor La Gerche also said the Life. Be in it. campaign of the 1970s and 1980s had created an impression that every heart attack can be prevented by lifestyle modifications, when in fact often it comes down to “non-modifiable” factors such as age, gender, or genetics. Sometimes its just plain bad luck.
Despite this, there is still a stigma associated with heart disease.
“There is this shame,” Professor La Gerche said. “I look after patients who come in in their 40s, having had a heart attack, and they just look at you with bewilderment and say, ‘how could this have happened to me? I ride my bike every day, I have a good diet, this is not possible’. And it’s absolutely possible. In fact, it’s common.”
In September last year, Warne revealed he had been put on a ventilator for a short period after being diagnosed with COVID-19 while in England coaching the London Spirit.
The cricketer also faced a well-publicised battle with his weight, with his love of pints of beer and chicken and chips well-known. In 2019, he reportedly dropped 14 kilograms, after previously hitting almost 100 kilograms.
Director of Victoria Heart, Dr Andris Ellims, a Victorian trained cardiologist and cardiac imaging specialist, said it was about managing various risk factors – only some of which are avoidable.
Four of the biggest modifiable risks are high cholesterol (particularly low-density lipoprotein or “bad cholesterol”, as it more commonly known), high blood pressure, smoking and diabetes. But when it comes to the other three risk factors – age, gender and genetics – there is little we can do.
“I think it can affect anyone,” Dr Ellims said. “Heart disease is the commonest cause of death in Australian adults. So, I think the message is that people need to be on the front foot with their own health and get themselves evaluated and see what sort of risk level they are at, and then what needs to be done.”
“It’s all about statistics and risk,” he said. “So people can have all those risk factors and have no problems and on the other hand, none of them, and then have problems.”
But Dr Ellims said as soon as smoking was thrown into the mix, particularly for middle-aged men, “it’s a recipe for trouble”.
— originally published by The Age, 5 Mar 2022 (Author: Josh Gordon)