What Happened to Russert

"doctors know little about what predisposes one person to it and not another",
"assessing risk is a very, very difficult thing"

Keep those two very true facts in mind the next time your doctor tries to push unnecessary treatments (or seven surgery) on you. They don't know jack about heart disease but most claim to know how to cure it. The funny thing is, both the causes and the "cures" keep changing every 10 years or so. Don't take my word for it, do your own research: Google "cholesterol scam" and find out.

Current routine testing (cholesterol and stress tests) simply tiptoes around the need for a better diagnostic toll for visualizing potential plaques and coronary artery disease. Catheterization is dangerous and expensive and reserved for those with more serious problems than the apparently well walking around with real risk. Better, cheaper and more definitive diagnostic tools need be validated and implemented. Time to take my statin and aspirin and get on my bike!

Cheney has a heart?

Is it clearly known that this was due to a myocardial infarction?
I understand he had just had a long haul flight from Italy just prior to this.
Given his recent normal stress test, a plumonary embolus related to his long haul flight would seem likely.

I absolutely refuse to believe any part of this story, including the part about his having died. Try again Newsweek, some of us are not as easy to fool as you would like to think!

I absolutely refuse to believe any part of this story, including the part about his having died. Try again Newsweek, some of us are not as easy to fool as you would like to think!

Good thing they didn't take him to Johns Hopkins: http://adventuresincardiology.wordpress.com/

Please lets not rule out foul play. Investigators should seriously investigate this case and not just consider it a heart attack.

I'm shocked and saddened since I heard about Tim Russert's death. Such a huge loss to America. I'm a political junkie and I feel Tim has left such a void which cannot be filled. He had such a infectious enthusiasm for American politics. I keep thinking, couldn't his doctor have taken some pre-emptive steps when he already was diagnosed as having coronary artery desease? Also when someone is such a high profile journalist and at a such a position in NBC and brings so much popularity and authenticity to the network, shouldn't NBC have some duty to have the best from medical profession do regular health monitoring and provide nutritional diet control and forced fitness regime? I know people should be personally responsible for their own health, but sometimes our society and system need to step in to help each of us reach our healthy goals. We all can't be perfect in everything. Something somewhere failed... we need to rethink...Tim could have been saved...:(

We are all mortals. We have expiry dates that we do not know. Tim did not know or worry about his health because he pass his treadmill stress test a few months ago. A medical checkup is no guarantee that you will not drop dead from sudden cardiac arrest. This is one eventual journey we cannot avoid.

RE: my previous statement that Tim Russert was fat and didn't appear to practice portion control. I did not mean that to be judgmental or holier-than-thou. I'm fat, too, and though I exercise and eat lots of fruits and vegetables, I have a problem with portion control. I drink too much, too, and have a weakness for drinking wine and eating dinnet at 10 or 11 pm. My sister died of lung cancer three years ago because, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't stop smoking. My father died before anti-depressants and was accused of not being able to just "snap out of it" when it came to his being in despair. Both of them had integrity and high character. I have a penchant for human weakness and frailty, which I myself have in abundance, and if I rather abruptly said that Tim Russert was fat and had appeared to have a problem with portion control, I meant it as a surmise in answer to the topic that was thrown out: What happened to Tim Russert? I meant no aspersion on his character or callousness toward his grieving loved ones. I hate the holier-than-thou attitude, too, but I'd still like to know, as a part understanding this particular human being, did he try to keep his weight under control or did he just blow it off? I mean that as a valid question and without disrespect.

Regarding the death Of Tim Russert:

In this Newsweek article, Dr. Steven Nissen, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic told the magazine when asked about the role of STRESS and heart attacks: "Most of us do not think it is terribly relevant," and explained this with a shocking lack of logical thinking: Newsweek writes,

"After all, he notes, "many people in this world have stressful jobs," and they don't all die of of heart attacks."

Time Magazine named Dr. Nissen one of the 100 Most Influential People In The World in their "Scientists and Thinkers" section.

Think about that.

Now, consider the completely illogical statement from Dr. Nissen bolded above. One thing should be made perfectly clear in light of this statement: He believes cholesterol as very relevant to heart attack risk. Yet, to turn his Newsweek comments around, "many people in this world have **high cholesterol**" and they don't all die of heart attacks. In fact, study after study shows countries with the highest rates of fat intake and the highest average cholesterol rates have the lowest incidence of heart disease. Imagine that!

Dr. Nissen's irresponsible and illogical comments in Newsweek shows - again - the complete bamboozlement the cholesterol hypothesis has on western medicine just because, "everyone knows," high cholesterol causes Coronary Heart Disease. How do they know this? "Because everyone knows." Ad nauseum. With a little research, the facts show this is simply not true.

What Dr. Nissen said about stress can be said about high cholesterol. Plenty of people live with both without having heart attacks.

Maybe Mr. Russert's death can help in bringing us back to real science as opposed to what Big Pharma dictates as what is science - and what is not.

Follow the money.

Regarding the death Of Tim Russert:

In this Newsweek article, Dr. Steven Nissen, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic told the magazine when asked about the role of STRESS and heart attacks: "Most of us do not think it is terribly relevant," and explained this with a shocking lack of logical thinking: Newsweek writes,

"After all, he notes, "many people in this world have stressful jobs," and they don't all die of of heart attacks."

Time Magazine named Dr. Nissen one of the 100 Most Influential People In The World in their "Scientists and Thinkers" section.

Think about that.

Now, consider the completely illogical statement from Dr. Nissen bolded above. One thing should be made perfectly clear in light of this statement: He believes cholesterol as very relevant to heart attack risk. Yet, to turn his Newsweek comments around, "many people in this world have **high cholesterol**" and they don't all die of heart attacks. In fact, study after study shows countries with the highest rates of fat intake and the highest average cholesterol rates have the lowest incidence of heart disease. Imagine that!

Dr. Nissen's irresponsible and illogical comments in Newsweek shows - again - the complete bamboozlement the cholesterol hypothesis has on western medicine just because, "everyone knows," high cholesterol causes Coronary Heart Disease. How do they know this? "Because everyone knows." Ad nauseum. With a little research, the facts show this is simply not true.

What Dr. Nissen said about stress can be said about high cholesterol. Plenty of people live with both without having heart attacks.

Maybe Mr. Russert's death can help in bringing us back to real science as opposed to what Big Pharma dictates as what is science - and what is not.

Follow the money.

I wonder if an angiogram would have been able to determine that Russert had plaque build-up and the potential for a coronary thrombosis; if so, then could angioplasty been used to clear out the plaque and ward-off the thrombosis.

They discovered he had an enlarged heart. Wonder if he was on a statin drug to "treat" his condition. These have many side effects including starving the heart and body of CoEnzymeQ10 needed for energy. There are plenty of overweight people that eat lots of fat and have clear arteries. And plenty of low cholesterol folks that are trim that have heart attacks. Cholesterol is NOT the cause. It's long term INFLAMMATION from things like POLYUNSATURATED FATS!

i haven't seen any mention that the precipitating factor is actually thought to have been the stress test itself. the test is very hard for the body. and, there are other tests that are given in conjunction with the test that can help to find out if there are underlying problems that don't show up on the stress test. it is not an all-inclusive test. this was on the news today - komotv.com. the stress test could be the reason that he died at this time. it may have destabilized his system. this is another one of THOSE TESTS. there's also a serious problem with the sigmoidoscopy. people are dieing from tests.