The Scary Reason Your Heart Stops

Dear Reader,

If the words “cardiac arrest” send a chill up your spine, I don’t blame you.

A cardiac arrest can kill you in minutes, and it can happen to you even if you don’t have any history of heart disease.

About 50 percent of women who suffer from cardiac arrest—and 70 percent of men—have NO clinical history of heart disease.

So how do you know if you’re one of these walking time bombs?

That’s a good question.

And now a group of researchers believe they’ve finally found the answer.

First of all, it’s important to understand that a sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack.

A heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart is cut off.

A sudden cardiac arrest occurs when there’s an electrical malfunction that causes the heart to stop beating.

Heart attacks have warning signs, like chest pain and shortness of breath. Sudden cardiac arrest has no warning sign.

While most people survive their first heart attack, only 10 percent of cardiac arrest sufferers are so lucky.

Fortunately, a recent study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings is the very first to identify a key risk factor for sudden cardiac arrest.

Calcium deficiency.

Researchers looked at the calcium levels of people who had died from a sudden cardiac arrest (all of them had had their calcium levels checked in the 90 days before suffering the cardiac arrest). They then compared those numbers to the calcium levels of healthy people.

The difference was shocking.

Those with the lowest calcium levels had a 2.3-fold increased risk of having a cardiac arrest compared to those with the highest calcium levels.

Here’s the really scary part: Those “lowest levels” were actually within the normal range according to the recommended calcium levels.

This might tempt you to start taking calcium tablets, but hold your horses.

You should try to get calcium through food sources. The best sources include full-fat dairy (raw, if possible) and leafy greens.

But if you’re concerned enough about calcium levels to get them checked, the best way to do it is through a hair mineral analysis through Analytic Research Labs, Inc. (www.arltma.com).

If your calcium levels are low, they won’t just hand you calcium supplements… they will help identify the underlying cause of the calcium deficiency.

Correcting any deficiencies the right way will not only help prevent a sudden cardiac arrest, but will put you on the road to better overall health in the process.

To a brighter day,

Dr. Richard Gerhauser, M.D.