Thursday, December 20, 2018
Genetics
I spoke to a friend from before we were born this morning, and got a list of people we both knew who had died. Lots of athletes. Some of the best athletes from my high school. and tonight a friend who was a runner at school had a heart attack. It's unjust. It should be me, who smoked for many years and also got fat.
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I am thankful for being lucky in my choice of ancestors every day, as well as for the luck in which their DNA recombined in me.
A friend from BEFORE you were born? Are you twins?
Our mothers and even grandmothers knew each other. My aunt was a bridesmaid for his mother in 1950.
I suppose that as long as you maintain it, the conditioning required for athletics will keep your heart and lungs in better shape than otherwise. But we rely on lots of other organs too--I wonder if some of them _don't_ like too much stress.
I see this a lot at work, cardiac nurse. Apparently healthy, young (40s-50s) people who never smoked or did other bad things, suddenly keel over of a stroke or heart attack.
That said, add in smoking or drugs and the numbers get a lot higher, fast. Diabetics have worse odds of everything.
A friend of mine, an extremely fit endurance athlete who competed in ultra-marathons and Ironmans, ate well and was moderate in his habits, suffered a fatal heart attack at age 53 while running. He had a family history of heart disease but died much younger than his father who suffered from congestive heart failure. Perhaps my friend would have lived longer if he had been less active, or perhaps not. There seems to be much that isn't known.
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