Did Stress Kill Ken Lay? (how stress can cause heart attack)

Slate ^ | July 5 06 | Daniel Engber

[churchillbuff]

... Stress can cause heart problems in several different ways. First, an excess of stress hormones can cause a "myocardial infarction," otherwise known as a heart attack. A myocardial infarction occurs when a blockage forms in one of the arteries that supplies oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. Severe stress causes the heart to beat more quickly and increases blood flow through vessels that may already be narrowed by arterial plaques. This makes the plaques more likely to rupture, which can in turn cause a blood clot and the ensuing heart attack. (Stress hormones may also act directly on the plaques.)

High levels of stress hormone can also knock the heartbeat out of its natural rhythm. This happens most often when the heart lapses into "ventricular fibrillation" and its bottom chambers start beating at a very high speed. Blood stops circulating to the brain and death follows within 10 minutes. (If doctors reach a patient in time, they can try to save him with the electrical zap of a defibrillator.)

Stress can even produce the symptoms of a heart attack without causing any permanent damage to the heart muscle. A surplus of hormones will temporarily weaken the heart muscle cells of even very healthy people.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Did Stress Kill Ken Lay?

If it did, good!

[onyx]

It sure wasn't conscience.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Nope. He was a sociopath : )

[garbageseeker]

I think so. His heart was so heavy with the guilt of stealing of his employees money,stress of the trial and the stress of knowing that he was going to be a toy for some prisoner.

[stephenjohnbanker]

toy? what a polite synonym : )

[onyx]

For sure!

[garbageseeker]

Well, we need to keep the decorum of site as high as we can.

[A CA Guy]

[garbageseeker]

She looks like a California Raisin. All we need is to give her a mike

[stephenjohnbanker]

uh, yeah : )

[garbageseeker]

She has the mike, where is the music?

[G Larry]

What stress?
He wasn't going to have to worry about rent, groceries, companionship, retirement, healthcare, transportation, house repairs, etc.....
Sheeesh!

[Mckone1]

As horrible as Ken Lay's transgressions were deducted to be from things revealed during his trial, death - especially the sudden death - of a sinner isn't something for which we should rejoice.

We can and should pass earthly judgment on those who are proven to deserve justice in our time and place; however, the laws of God Incarnate should prevail in our hearts. My ultimate hope for all is eternal salvation, and rejoicing in the certain physical - and speculated eternal - demise of someone else could thrust your own soul into spiritual peril.

Yes, there are crimes whose victims call out for revenge - whose perpetrators deserve all manner of punishment - but be careful in wishing eternal wrath on others, and celebrating their mortality.

I'm no bleeding heart liberal; however, it has served me and may serve you well to remember and take to heart always these true words: "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

[Richard Kimball]

I have no doubt that stress brought on the heart attack. I don't think he feared prison, but people who head companies like he did are driven by more than greed. They want power and acclaim. He had it all, and EVERYTHING came crashing down. He went from being the guy that lived in an environment where everyone kissed his rear end to losing the money, the cars, the houses, and more than anything else, he was revealed to have been a fraud.

I'll tell you something else. He spread millions through both parties, high and low. There are a bunch of politicians that are just as happy he's gone. They were bought off, and no better than Lay. Lay just got caught.

[Rte66]

Oh, the "homage" (say it O-mahj like in Hollyweird) that is going to be paid to him in the next few days until the funeral, whenever it is.

They've already started talking about all the millions he gave to charities around town and around the US. I just want to say - yeah, easy come, easy go. At least one professorship he funded in his name at his alma mater has no one who wants to accept it, I heard on the news tonight.

I know exactly how stressful it is to lose everything. Unlike him, I just took 2 aspirin and slept off the chest pains the first time--and the next two times, because I had to keep going and didn't have the funds to get it taken care of. Hmmm, could've used the extra $$ his company bailed out on for my account. Oh well. Maybe by tomorrow I won't post about KenLay any more or even think of him at all. He only died this morning, after all.

Prayers up for the innocents in his family and those who went to the mat for him - they are better people than he was.

[GSlob]

Nope. Per Tayreezah' recipe, she's to be put in a bottle with gin [a cheaper variety].

[melt]

He died from a myocardial infarction--- not from a "broken heart".

[Richard Kimball]

There's no way Lay will be remembered as anything other than a con man. His epitaph was written before he died.

I've lost everything before, but I didn't have much to lose. When I was in college, I had a fire in my apartment and wrecked my car. I had a keychain, and none of the keys were good for anything. But I was young, and stupid, and it took about a month to replace my stuff. I remember reading an interview with Dustin Hoffman, where he talked about having much more fear after he became a big star. He said when he was young and broke, going to auditions, sometimes eating by buying a cup of coffee and eating all the free crackers at the table, he wasn't ever scared, after he got big, he thought, "If I lose it now, will I ever get it again?" Falling off a table is not nearly as scary as falling off a mountain.

For Lay, he obviously spent years greasing palms and juggling books. When you live like that, the specter of being discovered is always hanging over your shoulder. The bankruptcy, the trial and the conviction had to be like standing on a train track, and watching the train coming from four miles away. He had been paying Arthur Anderson to juggle books, but the company still went bankrupt. Investigations started in 2002, and Lay knew what could be revealed. For the last four years, he has been caught in the web of his dealings, seeing them carefully peeled open, and all the dirty dealings brought to light.

I'm not defending Ken Lay, but like most of us, I've done things I'd just as soon no one else know about. I think I'd prefer a quick trip to prison and to just hide away in there to being trotted out for public display like he was.

[Rte66]

Yeah, I know you're not defending him. I just got so sick of his plastic "false front" right up until the end. There's a lot to be said for "thinking positively," but he and his wife took it to ridiculous extremes during the trial, always smiling and laughing and saying they didn't have a care in the world. It was just like the whole façade of the Enron companies and the charade of their fake businesses.

I guess we can see what happens when people hide their feelings, especially men. Toxic buildup. My own losses were/are severe, for me. My whole lifetime of work, health, savings - gone. My pride, my joy, my optimism, all went with them. I have my faith, but am mostly just hanging by a thread and walking through what's left of my life like a zombie. I'm glad FR is here so I don't go nuts.