To Your Good Health: Heart attacks no longer ‘rare’ at 57
DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m always saddened when a young person dies of an old person’s calling. I read about an actor dying of a heart attack at age 57. Apparently, he was athletic and in otherwise good health. Why do healthy young people suffer from unexpected heart attacks? — A.C.G. ANSWER: A heart attack is very rare under the age of 30 — in the order of about 2 men per 100,000 per year. But this number continues to increase throughout lifetime. (Women also get heart disease but at a lower rate than men do at any given age. Roughly speaking, a woman’s risk for a heart attack is ...