Good, quality sleep protects us from infections during epidemics of acute respiratory infections. A sleepy person feels better, his physical and mental form many times better than those who did not get enough sleep. Well-sleeping people have more time and earn more, they are less late, they are 6 times less likely to get into an accident. And in general, life is more successful and happy.

So why, nevertheless, about a third of all deaths occur during sleep, and in the morning, when sleep is the deepest? Because the dream of such people is changed. It is not just poor quality or short-lived. People at high risk of dying in their sleep have severe breathing and heart problems that only appear during sleep.

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

The most common cause of death in sleep is obstructive sleep apnea, when snoring is interrupted for a long pause without breathing. At this moment, the walls of the pharynx stick together and do not allow the air flow to pass further, the oxygen in the blood gradually ends. As a rule, after a few seconds, this situation triggers the body's defense mechanisms, the brain wakes up, regaining control over inhalation and exhalation. However, for this to happen, the pulse must increase, the heart must begin to work faster and harder, and the level of adrenaline and blood pressure must rise, as with physical exertion.

If the breaks in breathing are short-lived and appear less than five per hour, then there may be no consequences. But the more often and more severe the apnea syndrome, the worse the body feels. In the end, the nutrition of the heart deteriorates right at the time of respiratory arrest, leading to pain behind the sternum and ischemia of the heart muscle. With a prolonged lack of oxygen, myocardial infarction develops. To save resources, the heart can slow down, and this provokes arrhythmias (atrial fibrillation or paroxysmal tachycardia), blockade of conducting electrical impulses through the heart (atrioventricular and sinoatrial blockades) and even cardiac arrest.

Not every person can stand this, especially if it happens every night, several times. With a severe degree of obstructive sleep apnea, there can be up to 500 stops of breathing per night, and the total time when a person does not breathe can reach several hours. It is not surprising that the heart and blood vessels can not stand it, and everything ends tragically.

Apnea diagnostics

Considering that all processes in a dream are invisible to the sleeping person, one may not be aware of a serious threat of death. The only sign high risk heart attack or stroke may be snoring. Less often, with severe sleep apnea, it may increase in the morning arterial pressure, bother headache, and during the day to torment drowsiness.

You can consult a sleep doctor about the quality of sleep, the presence and degree of apnea. If you're concerned about the quality of your sleep, get a sleep apnea test to understand how you breathe while you sleep. Remember that among the causes of sleep apnea, dental causes occupy a large proportion! Malocclusion and loss of teeth lead to sleep apnea in most cases. That is why in dental center"Dial-Dent" is engaged in the treatment of sleep disorders.

Experts told about death during sleep

Regardless of why a person died - from carbon monoxide poisoning to serious brain diseases, it is first of all important to clearly determine the cause of death. And this is precisely what makes it difficult. Forensic experts shared information on how they determine that the death was violent or caused by suicide, and how they determine the cause of death in young people.

If you were told that a friend died in a dream, this may mean that the cause of death has not been definitely established, or loved ones want to keep it a secret. But if the deceased was a young healthy person, then it is important to find answers to exciting questions.

To those who remain to live in this world and deeply mourn for the loss loved one, it is very important to know why a loved one died in order to draw a line. This is especially true for the family members of the deceased. important information, because the awareness of heredity, which affects the risk of dying in a dream, can potentially save the lives of his loved ones.

Deceased at home in a dream: actions

“If a loved one dies at home, especially in their sleep, then the forensic experts should be informed of the fact, if the fact of death is not supported by witness testimony,” says Dr. Candace Schopp, a forensic pathologist and medical examiner in Dallas County (USA).

“Whether we accept the case or not, a lot depends on what kind of medical history the patient had and what were the circumstances of his death,” adds the expert.

“The age of the deceased is a very important factor in the case,” Schopp says. The younger the person, the more often an autopsy is done if the underlying causes of death are not known. In the case of a serious age (more than 50 years) of the victim, or the presence of a diagnosis and the absence of signs of violent death, specialists are unlikely to do an autopsy.

The younger the person, the more often an autopsy is done.

Suicide version

Death under suspicious circumstances, with suspicion of suicide, besides at home, and even in a dream, is a completely different matter. “I will always check the version of suicide if a person died in bed. According to Schopp, the following key points lead to suicidal thoughts:

• strange objects were found at the scene;
• there are ambiguities in the medical history;
• the deceased was very young;
• the deceased was in good health.

According to the forensic pathologist, experts also often consider the version of an accidental drug overdose. V Lately there has been an increase in the number of people taking prescription painkillers incorrectly. Among them were often noticed opioids (opiates) - narcotic analgesics.

Accidents at home

Every year is marked by tragic deaths due to carbon monoxide poisoning, including at home and in sleep. This is told by Dr. Patrick Lanz, Professor at the Department pathological anatomy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, forensic pathologist and pathologist in North Carolina (USA).

Due to malfunctions in the operation of a gas boiler or column, carbon monoxide can be released around the house. “In this case, people can easily suffocate in the smoke and die,” says Lanz.

Or sometimes there is such a situation: a person has a built-in garage in the house. He started the car to warm it up. And left the garage door closed. “Carbon monoxide spreads quickly, and serious gas poisoning is possible,” Lantz says.

Cases are different. Let's say someone gets electrocuted because a wire in an electrical appliance, such as a hair dryer, has been damaged. “A person could touch the wire in the bathroom. He falls to the floor and falls asleep or falls on the bed. It is not always possible to find a person near an electrical appliance,” says the expert.

According to Lantz, if you ever find a deceased person in bed, your actions will depend on the circumstances of the incident: “If the deceased had cancer or chronic cardiovascular disease, the best option will call a therapist at home.”

In any case, if death occurs suddenly and unexpectedly, it is important to call an ambulance (103) and the police (102). “There are times when a person is alive, but he is barely breathing and he has a pulse that you cannot determine. Therefore, it is important to contact a professional to understand whether the person really died in his sleep,” says Patrick Lanz.

If death occurs suddenly, it is important to call the medical team in Ukraine (103) and the police (102). There are times when a person is alive, but he is barely breathing and his pulse is felt, which you cannot determine. Therefore, it is important to contact a professional to understand whether a person is alive or not.

Heart questions in a dream

Adults who die of natural causes, including at home and in their sleep, and are sent for an autopsy are often between 20 and 55. The reason for the autopsy is an unknown cause of death; plus, they have very few facts and medical records, Schopp says.

According to the expert, such dead often had:

“And in the vast majority of cases, we face undiagnosed cardiovascular diseases in our practice,” she adds.

When a person dies suddenly at night or during the day, it is often associated with a phenomenon such as cardiac arrhythmia, Schopp admits. In the case of a serious cardiac arrhythmia, the propagation of the cardiac impulse in the work of the heart may be impaired. An autopsy of the heart can reveal scarring, the expert says.

“The patient's heart may be enlarged while taking a large number alcohol or due to obesity”, explains the forensic pathologist. In addition, the heart is abnormal large sizes due to congenital heart disease.

Family diseases

It is very important to understand the reason for the unexpected death of a loved one, especially if he died before and in his sleep, says Lantz. “Firstly, it helps to properly explain to the family why the person passed away,” explains the expert. “It is especially important to realize this if the hereditary factor plays a key role in the case,” he adds.

Genetic diseases that can be rapidly fatal include "channelopathies". This is a group of hereditary or acquired neuromuscular diseases associated with impaired structure and function of ion channels in membranes. muscle cells or nerve fibers. Such diseases are a violation of the flow of ions through cells, in particular:

Diseases are caused by mutations in ion channel genes.

Channelopathies are responsible for some cases of cardiac arrhythmias among young adults, Schopp says. Often, as a result of canalopathy, a person dies in his sleep.

Brugada syndrome, for example, can lead to impaired heart rate in the lower chamber of the heart. Brugada syndrome is often inherited among Asians. Such a disease may be asymptomatic. Sometimes people just don't know that this disease is life-threatening. This is a sudden death syndrome that occurs due to polymorphic ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation.

Fibrillation - accelerated contraction individual muscle fibers heart, disrupting their synchronous activity (heart rate) and pumping function. Polymorphic ventricular tachycardia is a rare form of ventricular tachycardia, in which the amplitude of ventricular complexes changes like a sinusoid, and complexes of minimal amplitude connect phases of opposite polarity.

Related symptoms:

life saving

Guided by the results of the autopsy, experts can advise the relatives of the deceased who died at home and in his sleep to make a diagnosis in order to identify serious genetic diseases and speed up treatment if the disease is confirmed. Sometimes doctors only observe the disease, and in some situations, treatment is prescribed immediately. If doctors diagnose certain types of arrhythmia, then patients are offered to purchase an implantable defibrillator in the region of the heart.

An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is a pacemaker-type device that constantly monitors the rhythm of the heart. If the device detects a minor rhythm disturbance, it generates a series of painless electrical impulses to correct the rhythm.

If that doesn't help, or if the rhythm disturbance is severe enough, the ICD will generate a small electrical shock called a cardioversion. If this does not help, or if the rhythm disturbance is severe, the ICD generates an even stronger electrical shock, called defibrillation.

Prevention and diagnosis of relatives of the deceased

Diseases of the wall of the aorta, the large, central artery that carries blood from the heart to the body, can lead to rupture of the aorta and sudden death. Aortic aneurysm is often a hereditary disease. This is an expansion of the lumen of a blood vessel or cavity of the heart, due to pathological changes in their walls or developmental anomalies.

“Usually family members are offered to do in the case of an aneurysm of the deceased, including in a dream:

• echocardiogram;
• computed tomography;
• magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

When doctors see that the aorta begins to expand, they suggest that preventive surgery methods be applied,” says Lanz. “And then sudden death can be prevented,” the physician clarifies.

Schopp says that when hereditary diseases served as a possible cause of death, then representatives of her institution call relatives. “Sometimes I personally explain everything clearly over the phone,” she says. “In the autopsy report, I indicate that this is a genetic mutation that is inherited, and I recommend that the immediate family members (especially parents, brothers, sisters, children) go to a consultation with a therapist and undergo a diagnosis,” says the expert.

Mental health issues

When doctors take mental health issues into account, it means that they want to establish whether a person died of natural causes or not, even more so if it happened at home and in a dream. “Forensic experts have to do a lot of work in this direction and communicate with the relatives of the deceased,” says Lanz.

Typically, forensic experts ask the relatives of the deceased the following questions:

• Maybe the person was in a state of depression?
• Has he ever taken drugs or serious sedatives?
• Did he sometimes voice his attitude towards suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts?

If family members answer yes to at least one of these questions, forensic experts decide to do an autopsy.

“If we receive such information about the characteristics of the deceased, for example: that he had depression; suicidal tendencies were traced, I think any expert will say to do an autopsy. The age of the deceased does not matter in this case. Specialists then want to rule out the possibility of suicide,” he says.

Related diseases:

Brain diseases

According to Lanz, brain diseases that can lead to sudden death, including at home and in sleep, are as follows:

What is a brain aneurysm? This is a weakening of the wall of one of the blood vessels in the head. Due to the way the blood circulates in the head, because of this “weakness”, the walls of the vessel protrude. As with the over-inflated hot air balloon, such a bulge can lead to a rupture, resulting in cerebral hemorrhage.

In the case of infections such as meningitis and encephalitis, there can be fatal consequences for the human body, Lanz said. In general, with the development of such serious diseases, there are obvious symptoms that are worth considering.

“Epilepsy is known as a disease that causes death in sleep,” says Schopp. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the amount of oxygen decreases to the brain, and this provokes epileptic seizure. According to her, usually in the anamnesis of the patient such attacks of epilepsy have already been observed.

Causes of death in supposedly healthy people

According to Schopp, the frequency of sudden death among healthy people (seemingly) in their bed at home and in their sleep depends on how people understand the word “healthy”. Obesity is often the cause of unexpected death, says forensic pathologist Schopp. “For example, I meet many people in my practice who have a serious coronary insufficiency. In addition, I often observe the work of patients who have clogged arteries. Such phenomena are all “younger”, the doctor admits.

The frequency of sudden death among healthy people (seemingly) in their bed depends on how people understand the word "healthy".

Coronary insufficiency is a concept that means a decrease or complete cessation of coronary blood flow with insufficient supply of oxygen and nutrients to the myocardium.

According to Schopp, sometimes a person, by virtue of his low level income and living conditions may not have any records at all in the medical book for 15 years due to the fact that he could not see a doctor.

“It's quite rare for people to die suddenly and unexpectedly in their bed in their sleep,” Lantz says. "Sometimes it happens. In most cases where death has come without warning, forensic experts examine such incidents very carefully. We would like the autopsies to be performed more often - then it will be possible to inform the relatives of the deceased better,” the doctor hopes.

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Can people die while sleeping?

Of course they can, and this happens quite often, in the old days they even said that sleep is the smaller brother of death itself. The main cause of death in a dream is a heart attack, this was found out by somnologists, specialists dealing with sleep problems. They also found and described the syndrome of sudden and inexplicable death (SIDS), when death occurs in a dream for no apparent reason. Believers do not want such a death, without repentance, communion and other things. On the contrary, many dream of such a death - go to bed and not wake up. By the way, snorers, which means prone to pauses in breathing during sleep die at night more often than others. Ask your loved ones to see if you are at risk, you may need to see a doctor.

Unfortunately, this happens. A person, without thinking about anything, goes to bed and does not wake up. In most cases, those people who during their lifetime suffered from various heart diseases die in a dream. Sometimes even very small crumbs (up to 1 year old) can die in their sleep. Medicine calls it, a kind of sudden infant death syndrome. But still, they say that like this (dying in a dream), only the best people leave us. Those who were very kind and good during their lifetime, thereby immediately go to heaven. On the one hand, it is unfortunate, because. the dear person has gone; on the other hand, it is good that the person did not suffer from pain and illness.

They can. Some people die without waking up and not understanding anything. Most often, the cause of death in a dream is a heart attack, stroke, rupture of an aneurysm of the aorta and cerebral vessels, and acute heart failure. And this can happen (in the presence of an appropriate pathology) both with young people and with the elderly.

Good death. People say that you have to earn something like this. This statement applies, of course, only to the elderly.

The best death ever. I always ask God for such a death. The people who died like this (of those I knew) were good people. And whether I deserved such a death for myself is up to the Almighty to decide.

The most stupid and uninteresting. Sitting in an armchair is better, from being poisoned. Or from a pierced arrow in the chest. Sleep is essential for health! And not to go to the next world. Diagnosis, ate little porridge that did not last until dawn!

Book: Entertaining anatomy (Oddities of our body)

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Why do people die in their sleep?

There is no secret in this. If people sleep about 8 hours a day and die from "natural causes", then in 1 out of 3 cases they die in their sleep. However, in addition to this, there are strange deaths, directly related to sleep, so far they have baffled medical science and are not amenable to scientific explanation. This phenomenon is called sudden and unexplained death syndrome (SIDS). SIDS occurs among adults and is especially common among Asian men. No one knows why this phenomenon is most common in men and why Asians are so susceptible to it. The US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta listed SIDS as the leading cause of death among young Southeast Asian men who fled to the US in the early 1980s. SIDS has even been called Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, after Sudden Infant Death, which is the leading cause of death in children under 1 year of age in Australia.

The first description of SIDS in the medical literature appears in 1917 in the Philippines, where it was called bangungut. In 1959, a report from Japan named this syndrome pokkuri. He was written about in Laos, Vietnam, Singapore and all over Asia. The syndrome is known by various names, but it is still the same strange, inexplicable phenomenon. Immediately before death, all of his victims are in good health. Their tragic sudden death is a real shock for loved ones. The family often remains in poverty, since it was the deceased man who brought money into the house. Witnesses say that at first the victim sleeps normally, and then quite unexpectedly begins to moan, wheeze, snore strangely, suffocate, and eventually die. Doctors call this agonal signs. Most victims of the syndrome die from ventricular arrhythmia, sometimes after several minutes of agony. The ventricles are small cavities in the lower part of the heart, and an arrhythmia is a local involuntary muscle contraction. Sometimes relatives tried to wake the suffering person. However, if it was possible, it turned out to be useless - the person still died. When doctors performed an autopsy, they found no life-threatening pathologies, signs of accidental poisoning, allergies, or murder.

In 1992, seven scientists described in a paper their two-year study of SIDS in northeastern Thailand. They pointed out that a typical model of SINS is the following: after agonal signs, a person dies within a day; he is usually between 20 and 49 years old, he does not have "stories serious illnesses, during the previous year there was good health, and during the day before death - normal performance" sixteen . Scientists add that “In 63% of cases, death occurred in front of witnesses, and the rest of the victims were found in sleeping and resting positions. In cases where people were present, 94% of deaths were observed within an hour of the onset of the agony. All the people who died from SIDS were men…” At dead people was normal weight. Smoking, drugs, alcohol, and others possible factors their lives were not in danger.

Interestingly, the probability of SIDS among family members of the deceased was 40.3%. 18.6% of the victims had brothers who also died suddenly, but none had sisters who died this way. SVNS gives the impression of a seasonal phenomenon.

At least in Thailand, people are most susceptible to it during March-May, and rarely die in September-November. Researchers note that now in Thailand, SIDS is becoming "a potentially serious problem public health». This syndrome kills approximately 3,000 men aged 20 to 49 a year and is considered one of the leading causes of death in this age group along with accidents, poisonings, murders and heart attacks.

It is not surprising that in the absence of a scientific explanation for this syndrome, superstition is widespread in towns and villages. Researchers say people in rural areas of northeastern Thailand refer to SIDS as laitai (“death in sleep”). The local explanation for laitai is that the "ghost widow" seeks the souls of young men. After finding the soul, she waits for the man to fall asleep and then kidnaps her, followed by sudden death. Scientists point out that "fear of the laitai and the 'ghost widow' is widespread in northeastern Thailand; rituals are emerging that involve the disguise of sleeping men with women's cosmetics, nail polish, and bedding."

One of the hypotheses regarding sudden death syndrome is that a combination of physical and mental stressors may somehow trigger the mechanism of SIDS. As an example, one 1978 study cited psychological factors that trigger associated heart disease. However, other scholars consider this point of view highly controversial 17 .

"Ghost Widow" or something else, but SVNS is still a mystery 18 .

It is estimated that over the past three and a half millennia there have been only 230 peaceful years in the civilized world.

If the death rate were the same today as it was in 1900, more than half of the people who inhabit the planet today would be dead.

French President Charles de Gaulle's famous last words were: "How painful."

In World War II, killing every enemy soldier cost the Triple Alliance dollars.

Under a British law passed in 1845, attempting suicide is a crime punishable by death.

In our time, only one person out of 2 billion lives 116 years or more.

Do the chances of dying depend on solar activity? What are zombies?

Update static data: 03:54:04, 03/06/18

Sudden death due to cardiac causes: from acute coronary insufficiency and others

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is one of the most severe cardiac pathologies that usually develops in the presence of witnesses, occurs instantly or in a short period of time and has atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary arteries as the main cause.

The suddenness factor plays a decisive role in making such a diagnosis. As a rule, in the absence of signs of an impending threat to life, instant death occurs within a few minutes. A slower development of the pathology is also possible, when arrhythmia, heart pain and other complaints appear, and the patient dies in the first six hours from the moment they occur.

The greatest risk of sudden coronary death can be traced in individuals who have some form of disturbance in the vessels, heart muscle, and its rhythm. Among young patients, there are 4 times more men, in old age, the male sex is susceptible to pathology 7 times more often. In the seventh decade of life, gender differences are smoothed out, and the ratio of men and women with this pathology becomes 2:1.

Most patients with sudden cardiac arrest find themselves at home, a fifth of cases occur on the street or in public transport. Both there and there are witnesses to the attack, who can quickly call an ambulance, and then the likelihood of a positive outcome will be much higher.

Saving a life can depend on the actions of others, so you can’t just walk past a person who suddenly fell on the street or passed out on a bus. You should at least try to carry out basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation - indirect heart massage and artificial respiration, after calling for help from doctors. Cases of indifference are not uncommon, unfortunately, therefore, the percentage of unfavorable outcomes due to late resuscitation takes place.

Causes of sudden cardiac death

main cause of SCD is atherosclerosis

The causes that can cause acute coronary death are very numerous, but they are always associated with changes in the heart and its vessels. The lion's share of sudden deaths is caused by ischemic disease heart, when fatty plaques form in the coronary arteries, which impede blood flow. The patient may not be aware of their presence, may not present complaints as such, then they say that a completely healthy person suddenly died from heart attack.

Another cause of cardiac arrest can be an acutely developed arrhythmia, in which proper hemodynamics is impossible, the organs suffer from hypoxia, and the heart itself cannot withstand the load and stops.

The causes of sudden cardiac death are:

• Cardiac ischemia;
• Congenital anomalies of the coronary arteries;
• Arterial embolism in endocarditis, implanted artificial valves;
• Spasm of the arteries of the heart, both against the background of atherosclerosis, and without it;
• Hypertrophy of the heart muscle with hypertension, defect, cardiomyopathy;
• Chronic heart failure;
• Metabolic diseases (amyloidosis, hemochromatosis);
• Congenital and acquired valve defects;
• Injuries and tumors of the heart;
• Physical overload;
• Arrhythmias.

Risk factors are identified when the probability of acute coronary death becomes higher. The main such factors include ventricular tachycardia, an earlier episode of cardiac arrest, cases of loss of consciousness, a previous heart attack, a decrease in the left ventricular ejection fraction to 40% or less.

Secondary, but also significant conditions under which the risk of sudden death is increased are considered concomitant pathology in particular diabetes, hypertension, obesity, disorders fat metabolism, myocardial hypertrophy, tachycardia more than 90 beats per minute. Risk also smokers, those who neglect motor activity and, conversely, athletes. With excessive physical exertion, hypertrophy of the heart muscle occurs, a tendency to rhythm and conduction disturbances appears, therefore, death from a heart attack is possible in physically healthy athletes during training, match, competition.

diagram: distribution of causes of SCD at a young age

For more careful monitoring and targeted examination, groups of people with a high risk of SCD have been identified. Among them:

1. Patients undergoing resuscitation for cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation;
2. Patients with chronic insufficiency and ischemia of the heart;
3. Individuals with electrical instability in the conduction system;
4. Those diagnosed with significant cardiac hypertrophy.

Depending on how quickly death occurred, instant cardiac death and fast death are distinguished. In the first case, it occurs in a matter of seconds and minutes, in the second - within the next six hours from the onset of the attack.

Signs of sudden cardiac death

In a quarter of all cases of sudden death of adults, there were no previous symptoms, it occurred without obvious reasons. Other patients noted a worsening of well-being in the form of: one to two weeks before the attack:

• More frequent pain attacks in the region of the heart;
• Increasing shortness of breath;
• A noticeable decrease in efficiency, feelings of fatigue and fatigue;
• More frequent episodes of arrhythmias and interruptions in the activity of the heart.

Before cardiovascular death, pain in the region of the heart sharply increases, many patients have time to complain and experience it. intense fear as occurs in myocardial infarction. Psychomotor agitation is possible, the patient grabs the region of the heart, breathes noisily and often, catches air with his mouth, sweating and reddening of the face are possible.

Nine out of ten cases of sudden coronary death occur outside the home, often in the presence of a strong emotional experience, physical overload, but it happens that the patient dies from acute coronary pathology in a dream.

With ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest against the background of an attack, severe weakness appears, dizziness begins, the patient loses consciousness and falls, breathing becomes noisy, convulsions are possible due to deep hypoxia of the brain tissue.

On examination, pallor of the skin is noted, the pupils dilate and stop responding to light, it is impossible to listen to heart sounds due to their absence, and the pulse on large vessels is also not determined. In a matter of minutes, clinical death occurs with all the signs characteristic of it. Since the heart does not contract, the blood supply to all internal organs, therefore, already a few minutes after loss of consciousness and asystole, breathing disappears.

The brain is most sensitive to lack of oxygen, and if the heart does not work, then 3-5 minutes are enough for irreversible changes to begin in its cells. This circumstance requires the immediate start of resuscitation, and the sooner chest compressions are provided, the higher the chances of survival and recovery.

Sudden death due to acute coronary insufficiency accompanies arterial atherosclerosis, then it is more often diagnosed in older people.

Among young people, such attacks can occur against the background of spasm of unchanged vessels, which is facilitated by the use of certain drugs. drugs(cocaine), hypothermia, excessive physical activity. In such cases, the study will show no changes in the vessels of the heart, but myocardial hypertrophy may well be detected.

Signs of death from heart failure in acute coronary pathology will be pallor or cyanosis of the skin, a rapid increase in the liver and jugular veins, pulmonary edema is possible, which accompanies shortness of breath up to 40 respiratory movements per minute, sharp anxiety and convulsions.

If the patient already suffered from chronic organ failure, but edema, cyanosis of the skin, an enlarged liver, and expanded borders of the heart during percussion can indicate the cardiac genesis of death. Often, when the ambulance team arrives, the patient's relatives themselves indicate the presence of a previous chronic illness, they can provide doctors' records and extracts from hospitals, then the issue of diagnosis is somewhat simplified.

Diagnosis of sudden death syndrome

Unfortunately, cases of post-mortem diagnosis of sudden death are not uncommon. Patients die suddenly, and doctors can only confirm the fact of a fatal outcome. The autopsy did not find any pronounced changes in the heart that could cause death. The unexpectedness of what happened and the absence of traumatic injuries speak in favor of the coronarogenic nature of the pathology.

After the arrival of the ambulance and before the start of resuscitation, the patient's condition is diagnosed, which by this time is already unconscious. Breathing is absent or too rare, convulsive, it is impossible to feel the pulse, heart sounds are not detected during auscultation, the pupils do not react to light.

The initial examination is carried out very quickly, usually a few minutes are enough to confirm the worst fears, after which the doctors immediately begin resuscitation.

Important instrumental method The diagnosis of SCD is the ECG. With ventricular fibrillation, erratic waves of contractions appear on the ECG, the heart rate is above two hundred per minute, soon these waves are replaced by a straight line, indicating cardiac arrest.

With ventricular flutter, the ECG record resembles a sinusoid, gradually giving way to erratic fibrillation waves and an isoline. Asystole characterizes cardiac arrest, so the cardiogram will only show a straight line.

With successful resuscitation at the prehospital stage, already in a hospital, the patient will have to undergo numerous laboratory examinations, starting with routine urine and blood tests and ending with toxicological study on some drugs that can cause arrhythmia. 24-hour ECG monitoring will be mandatory, ultrasound examination heart, electrophysiological study, stress tests.

Treatment of sudden cardiac death

Since cardiac arrest and respiratory failure occur in sudden cardiac death syndrome, the first step is to restore the functioning of the life support organs. Emergency care should be started as early as possible and includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation and immediate transport of the patient to a hospital.

At the prehospital stage, the possibilities of resuscitation are limited, usually it is carried out by emergency specialists who find the patient in a variety of conditions - on the street, at home, at the workplace. It is good if at the time of the attack there is a person nearby who owns her techniques - artificial respiration and chest compressions.

Video: performing basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Ambulance team after diagnosis clinical death begins indirect heart massage and artificial ventilation of the lungs with an Ambu bag, provides access to a vein into which medications can be injected. In some cases, intratracheal or intracardiac administration of drugs is practiced. It is advisable to inject drugs into the trachea during its intubation, and the intracardiac method is used most rarely - if it is impossible to use others.

In parallel with the main resuscitation, an ECG is taken to clarify the causes of death, the type of arrhythmia and the nature of the heart's activity at the moment. If ventricular fibrillation is detected, then defibrillation will be the best method of stopping it, and if the necessary device is not at hand, then the specialist strikes the precordial region and continues resuscitation.

If cardiac arrest is detected, there is no pulse, there is a straight line on the cardiogram, then during general resuscitation, adrenaline and atropine are administered to the patient in any available way at intervals of 3-5 minutes, antiarrhythmic drugs, cardiac stimulation is established, after 15 minutes sodium bicarbonate is added intravenously.

After placing the patient in the hospital, the struggle for his life continues. It is necessary to stabilize the condition and begin treatment of the pathology that caused the attack. Might need surgery, indications for which are determined by doctors in the hospital based on the results of examinations.

Conservative treatment includes the introduction of drugs to maintain pressure, heart function, and normalize electrolyte disturbances. For this purpose, beta-blockers, cardiac glycosides, antiarrhythmic drugs, antihypertensives or cardiotonic drugs, infusion therapy are prescribed:

• Lidocaine for ventricular fibrillation;
• Bradycardia is stopped by atropine or izadrin;
• Hypotension serves as a reason for intravenous administration of dopamine;
• Fresh frozen plasma, heparin, aspirin are indicated for DIC;
• Piracetam is administered to improve brain function;
• With hypokalemia - potassium chloride, polarizing mixtures.

Treatment in the post-resuscitation period lasts about a week. At this time it is likely electrolyte disturbances, DIC, neurological disorders, so the patient is placed in the intensive care unit for observation.

Surgical treatment may consist of radiofrequency ablation of the myocardium - with tachyarrhythmias, the efficiency reaches 90% or more. With a tendency to atrial fibrillation, a cardioverter-defibrillator is implanted. Diagnosed atherosclerosis of the arteries of the heart as a cause of sudden death requires coronary artery bypass grafting, with valvular heart disease, they are plastic.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to provide resuscitation within the first few minutes, but if it was possible to bring the patient back to life, then the prognosis is relatively good. According to research data, the organs of persons who have suffered sudden cardiac death do not have significant and life-threatening changes, therefore, maintenance therapy in accordance with the underlying pathology allows you to live for a long time after coronary death.

Prevention of sudden coronary death is needed for people with chronic diseases of cardio-vascular system, which can cause an attack, as well as those who have already experienced it and have been successfully resuscitated.

A cardioverter-defibrillator may be implanted to prevent a heart attack, and is especially effective for serious arrhythmias. At the right time, the device generates essential to the heart momentum and won't let it stop.

Cardiac arrhythmias require medical support. Beta-blockers are prescribed calcium channels products containing omega-3 fatty acids. Surgical prophylaxis consists of operations aimed at eliminating arrhythmias - ablation, endocardial resection, cryodestruction.

Non-specific measures for the prevention of cardiac death are the same as for any other cardiac or vascular pathology - healthy lifestyle life, physical activity, rejection of bad habits, proper nutrition.

Death in sleep- not such a rare occurrence, according to medical statistics, sleep accounts for about one in three deaths.

Why is this happening?

For ancient man the answer was obvious. Strictly speaking, our distant ancestors did not see a fundamental difference between sleep and death at all: both the sleeping person and the dying soul leaves the body, for some reason it could not or did not want to return - here you have death in a dream ... of course, today such an "explanation" will no longer suit anyone.

Most often, people who suffer from heart disease die in their sleep. This is explained by the fact that we sleep lying down, and in this position, the flow of venous blood to the heart increases, and then the heart muscle needs an order of magnitude more oxygen, and the diseased heart is already poorly supplied with it - which is why it is recommended not to lay down the patient during a heart attack, and to arrange in a half-sitting position - that is, in a dream, when a person lies for several hours, there is more chance that the diseased heart will not withstand the load. In addition, if a heart attack occurs while awake, it is more likely that a person will be immediately helped (if it has not come to a cardiac arrest, he himself can do something - for example, urgently take medicine), if the attack happened in a dream , a person may not even have time to wake up, and there is no one nearby who could help - after all, loved ones are also sleeping.

Another risk group for death in sleep- these are children under the age of one year, there is even such a concept in medicine - sudden infant death syndrome. The reasons for this phenomenon are not completely clear, but it is known that this happens an order of magnitude more often with children whose mothers were ill with something or often experienced stress during pregnancy, or smoked, drank alcohol, drugs. Premature babies are at risk, complicated births, especially breech presentation, increase the risk by 2 times, and births that last more than 16 hours increase by 7 times, and the age of the mother is less than 20 years. Often the cause of the sudden death of a baby is sleeping on the stomach (in this case, the baby may suffocate), too warm a blanket, soft base of the bed.

But it also happens that a completely healthy adult dies in a dream.- most of these cases occur between the ages of 20 and 49, for unknown reasons, this happens to men much more often than to women, and to Mongoloids - more often, with representatives of other races, and for the most part these are not the cases when you can write off worsening health due to excess weight, alcohol or drugs, the autopsy also did not give any explanation. As a rule, witnesses (if any) describe the following: a person was sleeping peacefully - and suddenly began to moan in his sleep, wheeze, gasp (ie agonal symptoms) and eventually died. If a person was awakened when agonal signs appeared, this did not help: if he did not die immediately, then this happened either within an hour (in 94%) of cases) or within a day.

As already mentioned, Asians most often suffer from this, and this phenomenon is even reflected in the folklore of Asian peoples - for example, in Thailand there is a legend about "laytai", the ghost of a widow who steals the souls of sleeping men (to protect yourself from this ghost, it is recommended for a while sleep "disguise" yourself with women's cosmetics).

What do the scientists say?

Genetic predisposition plays a role- often this happens to those whose brothers or other relatives died in this way. Most often, such tragedies happen in the spring, and least often in the fall.

To some extent, a group of researchers from the University of California led by Professor J. Feldman managed to shed light on the causes of this phenomenon: in one of the parts of the brain stem (the so-called pre-Botzinger complex) there is a group of neurons that gives "commands" that provide breath. During sleep, these neurons can turn off and "forget" to give a "command", then breathing stops. Usually a person wakes up immediately, breathing is restored - and nothing terrible happens, but with age, more and more neurons in this group die, respectively, regulation becomes worse - an unfavorable “scenario” is more and more likely (as a rule, breathing stops in the REM phase) .

True, this explanation applies more to older people, and sudden death in a dream, as already mentioned, overtakes mature and even young people. Nor does this study explain why it occurs mainly in Asian men... In short, there are still many questions to be answered!

Sudden death occurs as a result of a fast-paced latent or clinically pronounced disease state. As medical practice shows, sudden death in adults often occurs due to acute coronary insufficiency, congenital or acquired cardiac and vascular pathologies. Find out what symptoms may indirectly indicate a hidden threat.

What is sudden death

According to international medical recommendations, the sudden death of a person is considered within 6 hours after the onset of the first symptoms of a pathological condition. Instant death, or in translation into English sudden death, occurs without a known cause. In addition, there are no morphological signs based on which, at autopsy, an appropriate diagnosis can be made about the sudden death of the patient.

Nevertheless, in the course of a post-mortem examination of a person, a pathologist, having compared all the available data, can make a logical conclusion about the instantaneous or violent death of a person. In most cases, in favor of instantaneous death, such changes in organs speak in which the continuation of life for the shortest period of time is impossible.

Causes of sudden death

Statistics show that heart disease is the main cause of most deaths: ischemic pathology, the onset of ventricular fibrillation. At the same time, answering what causes instant death, experts often call chronic ailments, which for a long time proceed in a latent form, after which they suddenly become aggravated and lead to an unexpected death of a person. One of these deadly dangerous diseases is cancer.

In most cases, oncology develops asymptomatically and makes itself felt when the patient is often already considered hopeless. Thus, malignant liver disease is the main cause of unexpected deaths in China. Another insidious disease that can lead to sudden death is AIDS, which claims millions of lives every year in Africa. In addition, it is worth mentioning separately about Mexico. This the only country in which cirrhosis of the liver is main reason high mortality of the population.

In young age

Today, young men and women are exposed to negative influences every day. modern image life. From the TV screens, the covers of fashion magazines, the cult of a slender (often dystrophic) body, accessibility and promiscuity is imposed on young people. Therefore, it is quite clear that the mortality rate of people who are just starting their life path will increase over time. The main causes of instant death among boys and girls under the age of 25 are considered to be:

• alcohol;
• smoking;
• promiscuity;
• drug addiction
• malnutrition;
• psychological susceptibility;
• hereditary diseases;
• severe congenital pathologies.

In a dream

Unexpected death in this state occurs due to the loss of special cells responsible for the contractility of the lungs. So, scientists from the USA managed to prove that people die in their sleep in most cases due to central sleep apnea. At the same time, a person can even wake up, but still leave this mortal world due to oxygen starvation caused by a stroke or cardiac arrest. As a rule, this syndrome affects people of advanced age. There is no specific treatment for central sleep apnea.

Sudden infant death

This syndrome was first described in the early 60s of the last century, although cases of instantaneous death of infants were recorded earlier, but they were not subjected to such a thorough analysis. Young children have very high adaptive abilities and incredible resilience to a variety of negative factors so death baby considered to be an exceptional situation. However, there are a number of external and internal causes that can lead to sudden infant death:

• prolongation of the Q-T interval;
• apnea (periodic breathing phenomenon);
• deficiency of serotonin receptors;
• overheat.

Risk factors

Due to the fact that the main cardiogenic cause If coronary disease acts as instant death, then it is quite logical to assume that the syndromes accompanying this pathology of the heart can be fully attributed to conditions that can increase the likelihood of sudden death. With all this, it has been scientifically proven that this connection is mediated through the underlying disease. Clinical risk factors for the development of clinical death among patients with ischemic syndrome are:

• acute infarction myocardium;
• post-infarction macrofocal sclerosis;
• unstable angina;
• heart rhythm disturbance due to ischemic changes (rigid, sinus);
• ventricular asystole;
• myocardial damage;
• episodes of loss of consciousness;
• damage to the coronary (cardiac) arteries;
• diabetes;
• electrolyte imbalance (eg, hyperkalemia);
• arterial hypertension;
• smoking.

How sudden death occurs

This syndrome develops in a matter of minutes (rarely hours) without any warning among complete well-being. In most cases, instant death affects young men between the ages of 35 and 43. In this case, often during the pathoanatomical examination of the dead, vascular causes of the onset of sudden death are found. So, studying the increasing cases of instantaneous death, experts came to the conclusion that the main provoking factor in the occurrence of this syndrome is a violation of coronary blood flow.

With heart failure

In 85% of cases, an instant lethal outcome is recorded in individuals with structural anomalies of the organ that pumps blood into the vessels. At the same time, sudden cardiac death looks like a lightning-fast clinical variant of coronary disease. Medical practice shows that a quarter of people who die instantly, before the onset of primary symptoms, bradycardia and episodes of asystole are observed. Death from cardiac arrest occurs due to the launch of the following pathogenetic mechanisms:

• Reducing the fractional ejection of the left ventricle by 25-30%. This syndrome greatly increases the risk of sudden coronary lethal outcome.
• Ectopic focus of automatism in the ventricle (more than 10 ventricular extrasystoles per hour or non-sustained ventricular tachycardia), arising as a result of ventricular arrhythmias. The latter mostly develop against the background of acute transient myocardial ischemia. The ectopic focus of automatism is usually qualified as a risk factor for sudden arrhythmic death.
• The process of spasm of the vessels of the heart, which leads to ischemia and contributes to the deterioration of the restoration of blood flow to damaged areas.

It should be noted that tachyarrhythmia is a particularly significant electrophysiological mechanism that causes sudden coronary death in a person with heart failure. Wherein timely treatment of this condition with a defibrillator with a modified pulse configuration significantly reduces the number of deaths among patients undergoing sudden cardiac arrest.

From a heart attack

Blood enters the heart through coronary arteries. If their lumen is closed, the formation of primary foci of necrosis, ischemia in the heart occurs. Acute manifestation of cardiac pathology begins with damage to the vascular wall with further thrombosis and spasm of the arteries. As a result, the load on the heart increases, the myocardium begins to experience oxygen starvation, which affects his electrical activity.

As a result of a sudden coronary spasm, ventricular fibrillation occurs, after a few seconds there is a complete cessation of blood circulation in the brain. At the next stage, the patient has respiratory arrest, atony, and the absence of corneal and pupillary reflexes. After 4 minutes from the onset of ventricular fibrillation and complete cessation of blood circulation in the body, irreversible changes occur in the brain cells. In general, death from a heart attack can occur in 3-5 minutes.

From a blood clot

In the venous line data pathological formations arise due to the uncoordinated work of the coagulation and anticoagulation systems. So, the onset of the appearance of a clot is caused by damage to the vascular wall and its inflammation against the background of thrombophlebitis. Perceiving the appropriate chemical signal, the coagulation system is activated. As a result, fibrin strands are formed near the pathological area, in which blood cells become entangled, creating all the conditions for the separation of a blood clot.

In the arteries, the formation of clots occurs due to the narrowing of the vascular lumen. So, cholesterol plaques block the free flow of blood, as a result of which a lump of platelets and fibrin filaments is formed. It is important to note that in medicine, floating and parietal thrombi are distinguished. Compared with the first type, the latter has little chance of breaking off and causing blockage (embolism) of the vessel. In most cases, the causes of sudden cardiac arrest from a thrombus are due to the movement of a floating thrombus.

One of the serious consequences of separation of such a clot is blockage pulmonary artery, which is expressed in a strong cough, cyanosis skin. Often there is a violation of breathing with subsequent cessation of cardiac activity. An equally serious consequence of the separation of a thrombus is a violation of cerebral circulation against the background of embolism of the main vessels of the head.

Diagnosis of sudden death

A timely physical examination is the key to the success of further measures to cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR). Diagnosis of instant death is based on symptoms characteristic of the natural death of the patient. Thus, the absence of consciousness is determined if no external stimuli cause reactions on the part of the resuscitated person.

Diagnosis of respiratory disorders is noted when for 10-20 s. observation fails to catch the coordinated movements of the sternum, the noise of the air exhaled by the patient. At the same time, agonal breaths do not provide proper ventilation of the lungs and cannot be interpreted as spontaneous breathing. ECG monitoring reveals pathological changes characteristic of clinical death:

• ventricular fibrillation or flutter;
• asystole of the heart;
• electromechanical dissociation.

Clinical manifestations

In 25% of cases, a sudden death occurs instantly without any precursors. Some patients a week before clinical death complain of various prodromal manifestations: increased pain in the sternum, general weakness, shortness of breath. It is important to note that today there are already methods of preventing a heart attack based on early diagnosis warning signs of this condition. Immediately before the onset of sudden death, half of the patients have an anginal attack. TO clinical signs the imminent death of the patient include:

• loss of consciousness;
• no pulse on carotid arteries;
• pupil dilation;
• lack of breathing or the appearance of agonal breaths;
• change in skin color from normal to gray with a bluish tint.

Medical care for sudden death

As a rule, most cases of unexpected cardiac arrest occur outside the hospital walls. For this reason, it is extremely important to master the technique of emergency care in case of sudden onset of clinical death. This is especially true for the subjects of society, which, by virtue of their official duties contact with large quantity people. Remember, competently carried out resuscitation actions directly in the first minutes after the onset of symptoms of cardiac arrest will help buy time before arrival. medical workers.

Urgent care

The main problem that occurs in unconscious persons is the obstruction of the airways by the root of the tongue and the epiglottis due to muscle atony. It must be said that given state develops in any position of the body, and when the head is tilted forward, it develops in 100% of cases. Therefore, the first thing to do is to ensure proper airway patency. For this purpose, you need to use the triple technique of P. Safar, consisting of the following sequential actions:

1. tilting the head;
2. Pushing the lower jaw forward;
3. Mouth opening.

Once airway patency is secured, proceed to artificial ventilation lungs (IVL). When providing first aid, this measure is carried out by the mouth-to-mouth method. So, one hand is located on the forehead of the victim, while the other pinches his nose. Then the resuscitator fixes his own lips around the mouth of the resuscitated person and blows in air, while controlling the excursion of the patient's chest. With its visible rise, you need to release the victim's mouth, giving him a chance to make a passive exhalation.

At the next stage, artificial circulatory support is carried out, to ensure which an algorithm for conducting an indirect heart massage, or chest compression, is used. For this purpose, it is necessary to correctly lay the resuscitated person on a flat surface. Next, the compression points should be determined: by palpation of the xiphoid process and retreat from it by 2 transverse fingers up.

The hand must be placed on the border of the middle and lower part of the sternum so that the fingers are parallel to the ribs. Pushes are performed with limbs straightened at the elbows. Chest compression is performed at a frequency of 100 compressions per minute with a break for mechanical ventilation. The depth of the shocks is about 4-5 cm. Measures to restore cardiac activity should be stopped if:

1. There was a pulse in main arteries.
2. The actions taken do not have the desired effect within 30 minutes. In this case, the following conditions that require prolongation of resuscitation are an exception:

• hypothermia;
• drowning;
• overdose medicines;
• electrical injury.

Resuscitation measures

To date, the concept of CPR is based on strict rules that ensure the complete safety of ongoing activities for human life. In addition, an algorithm for the actions of a resuscitator in case of sudden cardiac arrest or a sharp loss of respiratory function in an injured person is presented and scientifically substantiated. In the development of these conditions, time plays the main role: only a few minutes separate a person from death. The algorithm for conducting cardiopulmonary resuscitation involves the following actions:

1. Determining the condition of the victim, on the basis of which the range of measures necessary for revitalization is selected;
2. early start CPR, which involves performing two manipulations: an indirect heart massage and artificial ventilation of the lungs.
3. If the second stage is ineffective, they proceed to defibrillation. The procedure involves the impact on the heart muscle with an electrical impulse. In this case, direct current discharges should be applied only if the electrodes are correctly positioned and in good contact with the victim's skin.
4. At this stage, as a rule, the victim is provided with specialized medical care, including the following early treatment measures:

• artificial ventilation of the lungs with tracheal intubation;
• medical support, involving the use of:
• catecholamines (adrenaline, atropine);
• antidiuretic hormones (Vasopressin);
• antiarrhythmic drugs(Cordarone, Lidocaine);
• fibrinolytic agents (streptokinase).
• intravenous drip of electrolyte or buffer solutions (for example, sodium bicarbonate is administered for acidosis)

Video

The doctors are sounding the alarm. Around the world, cases of unexplained passing away of young people between the ages of 18 and 30 are increasingly being recorded. Such a concept as “sudden infant death syndrome” has been known to science for quite a long time, but experts insist that it is time to introduce medical reference books A new term is Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

From the history

The term for sudden death first appeared in 1917 in the Philippines, where the syndrome was called bangungut. Further, in 1959, Japanese doctors called it "smoke", and experts from Laos, Vietnam and Singapore also wrote about a similar phenomenon.

That's how independent disease syndrome sudden cardiac death began to stand out in the 80s of the 20th century, thanks to American researchers. At this time, the American Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta recorded an unusually high death rate (25 cases per 100,000 people) among young Southeast Asians. It was noted that their death mainly occurred at night, and all the dead were men aged 20 to 49 years. Moreover, most of them outwardly were absolutely healthy, did not suffer from overweight and did not have bad habits (alcohol, smoking, drugs).

Comparing the data obtained with information from colleagues from countries Far East and Southeast Asia, the researchers found that it is in these regions that cases of such pathology are very common, and more often among young people. At the same time, such a syndrome is practically not found among African Americans.

Causes of sudden death in a dream

Scientists have found that sudden cardiac death is characterized by pre-morning and early morning hours. The fact is that in the supine position to the heart, the flow of venous blood increases, as a result of which the heart muscle needs even more oxygen. If a person has any heart disease, the heart is obviously insufficiently supplied with oxygen and in this case it may simply not withstand the load.

Harbingers of the syndrome can be pressing or squeezing pain behind the sternum or in the region of the heart, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) or bradycardia (rare heartbeat), lowering blood pressure, cyanosis of the skin, weak pulse. Sleep apnea is a fairly common symptom.

Directly, sudden death itself can be suspected by the following manifestations: a sharp loss of consciousness, convulsions, slowing down breathing until it stops. Already three minutes after the onset of an unexpected cardiac arrest, irreversible changes develop in the cells of the central nervous system.

Risk factors for sudden cardiac death

It is difficult to say for what reason a person's heart suddenly stops beating during sleep. As a rule, autopsies in such situations do not show serious violations of the structure and structure of the heart. However, doctors are ready to warn with a list of the most common causes of heart failure, which significantly increases the risk that you will experience sudden cardiac death at night.

First of all, this is a violation of blood flow in the region of the heart, coronary heart disease, a violation of the structure and functioning of the main heart muscle, blood clots and blockage of the arteries, congenital and chronic diseases of the cardiovascular system, overweight and diabetes mellitus. A separate group of risk factors can include previous heart attacks or cardiac arrests, frequent episodes of loss of consciousness.

Official statistics say that all cases of unexpected death during sleep can be divided into three big reasons: primary arrhythmia (47%), ischemic factors (43%) and insufficiency of the pumping function of the heart (8%).

Harbingers of sudden cardiac death

Cardiologists and physiologists have compiled a small list of conditions that may precede sudden arrhythmic death and should seriously alert both the person himself and his loved ones.

• unexpected cases of severe weakness, sweating and dizziness, which quickly end.
• unnatural pallor of a person against the background of jumps in blood pressure.
• pallor after physical exertion, during stress and emotional overexcitation.
• low, not high blood pressure after any physical exertion.

If at least one such episode occurs, you should seek help from a cardiologist and conduct the necessary examinations and, if necessary, treatment.

Cardiac nocturnal death in healthy people

When a person dies unexpectedly and, at first glance, for absolutely no reason at night, this brings his loved ones into shock and complete bewilderment. However, pathologists are convinced that the concept of "health" in this case is quite subjective.

Forensic pathologist and forensic pathologist in Dallas County (USA), Dr. Candace Schopp is convinced that the frequency of cases when healthy-looking people die at night in their bed depends on how these people themselves understand the word “healthy”.

According to him, the causes of sudden death are often obesity, coronary insufficiency or clogged arteries. Such diagnoses during life may not bother the patient, or the person simply does not find the time and opportunity to see a doctor, mistakenly considering himself healthy.

First aid

If you are near a person who has an unexpected life-threatening seizure, call 911 immediately, open windows in the room (to increase oxygen), tell the person not to move in any way, and try to stay conscious as long as possible.

If possible health care in case of unexpected cardiac death, it should be provided as early as possible - in the first 5-6 minutes after cardiac arrest and the disappearance of signs of life.

Resuscitation measures include indirect heart massage (rhythmic pressure on the chest with a certain frequency, which contribute to the expulsion of blood and all cavities of the heart), artificial respiration (mouth to mouth). In conditions medical institution defibrillation is possible chest electric shocks with a special apparatus), which is a very successful way to restore the heart rhythm.

If the measures to provide first aid to the patient were successful, he is hospitalized in the cardiology or intensive care unit for examination and identification of the causes of such a condition. In the future, such people should regularly attend appointments with a cardiologist and follow all preventive recommendations.

Non-drug prevention of the causes of cardiac death can be considered to be the rejection of any bad habits, proper nutrition and exercise, positive emotions avoidance of stress and emotional overstrain

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1 Comment

Blah, blah, blah... Lots of medical indicators that don't explain anything. Yes, and this is understandable. I escaped death while sleeping. Therefore, I know this process from the inside, at the level of the layman. Everything is very simple. I experienced it and avoided it. But, everything is very difficult. You must know how this happens if you want to avoid it. But!!! … if you want to die, then it is contraindicated for you to know this. This is dangerous knowledge. There is an exit. Simple enough.

In general, according to the conclusions of doctors, it is possible to establish the exact cause of the development of cancer only in 4 cases out of 10, so most oncological pathologies are still mysterious to us. Cancer in general is very different from most diseases, so doctors still do not have clear recommendations for its prevention and effective treatments.

Promising areas

Uncontrolled cell division, which leads to the development of a malignant tumor, can happen for a huge number of reasons, ranging from environmental factors to what is on your plate every day. In addition, there is no clear causal relationship in principle. For example, a person can smoke all his life and never get sick.

Much attention today is paid to work in the field of the hereditary nature of cancer. But the diversity and number of genes in the human genome and the relationships between them are so diverse that it is difficult to say unequivocally which relationships and mutations can lead to cancer.

Photo is illustrative

Also, due attention is paid to the study of the microbiome - the composition of bacteria that live inside and outside our body. For example, a deficiency of certain bacteria in the intestines can be a predisposing factor in the development of cancer. It has already been proven that the notorious bacterium Helicobacter pylori may be associated with the development of stomach cancer. And here again we come to the importance of a daily diet and a healthy lifestyle in general.

Good news

But in all this variety of factors, causes and unknowns, there are good news. Cancer accompanies humanity throughout its existence, and it is not at all a disease of the 21st century, as many people think. But today, doctors already have a fairly good arsenal of methods for the timely diagnosis and treatment of many types of cancer. And this is their great advantage.

Again, all scientists agree that it is not worth considering individual factors risk of cancer, it is more correct to study them together. And a huge amount of research conducted every year is still good. Let some of them turn out to be not so reliable, and some - financed by manufacturers, but in any case, new information becomes food for thought, in which sooner or later there will be a rational grain.

Yes, medicine cannot reliably guarantee that a healthy lifestyle, proper nutrition, sports and the rejection of bad habits will protect you from cancer by 100%. But nevertheless, they will clearly make your life much happier, healthier and even longer, and this is already a lot.

Probably many would answer the question “how would you prefer to die?” taken away - "to fall asleep and not wake up." Indeed, such a transition to another world can be called painless, and perhaps the most desirable, but ... Death is a natural process, the cause of death is not always natural. Accidents, traffic accidents and much more, which often does not give a healthy person a chance to survive, who in other circumstances could well live to old age and die a natural death. If we discard the causes of violent death, then what is the probability of dying in a dream and who is predisposed to this?

There are 24 hours in a day, and almost a third of them we spend sleeping. If you think logically, then the probability of dying in a dream by " natural causes” is 1 chance out of 3. The indicator is quite high, but medical luminaries are more worried about something else. There are deaths in a dream that defy scientific explanation and to which there is still no answer. It's called Sudden and Unexplained Death Syndrome (SIDS).

It has been observed that a similar phenomenon is most often observed in adults, in particular among Asian men. No one knows what this is connected with and why exactly men of a certain age and origin are subject to such death. In the 80s, this reason was named the main one and even took the lead, taking it away from sudden infant mortality, as a result of which children under one year old died for unknown reasons.

In 1917, for the first time, information about SIDS was published in the medical literature, which occurred in the Philippines and was called bangungut. Subsequently, for unknown reasons, similar deaths began to be recorded in Japan, Singapore, Laos and throughout Asia. An interesting fact is that before death, a person does not experience any symptoms indicating malaise, disease, or any other factors. The person is in good health, and therefore his sudden death is simply a shock to his family and friends. According to eyewitnesses, the man first sleeps peacefully, and then suddenly begins to moan, it is not natural to snore, suffocate and die. Doctors call such signs agonal or dying. Even if the relatives managed to wake the unfortunate man, this did not save him from death. At a subsequent autopsy, the pathologists did not find any pathologies that could lead to death, including no signs of poisoning, allergies, or covert murder.

Such an unusual phenomenon did not pass by scientists and in 1992 they conducted a two-year study in Thailand, studying the causes and likelihood of death in a dream in other populations. They managed to find out the following:

All SIDS deaths were male;

Age from 20 to 49 years;

Nobody was overweight;

No serious illness had been reported during the previous year; all were in good health;

Alcohol, smoking, drugs or other risk factors did not threaten their lives;

Throughout the day preceding death, they had normal performance;

After the onset of agony, the person died within a day;

Although death occurred in a dream, in 63% of cases it occurred in front of relatives or friends; in other cases, men were found in sleeping and resting positions;

In 94% of cases where witnesses were present, death occurred within one hour.

When asked about the likelihood of sudden death among family members of the deceased, it was found to be about 40%. In 19% of those who died, relatives of the man died the same death. It is also interesting that the occurrence of such cases of death is not the same throughout the year. The highest peak occurs from March to May, and very rarely from September to November. It gives the impression of a seasonal phenomenon.

The reasons why men die in Thailand have not yet been found, and therefore SIDS is considered a "potentially serious public health problem." Along with murder, poisoning, accidents and heart attacks, this syndrome claims the lives of about 3,000 men a year, between the ages of 20 and 50.

One of possible causes Such a death is considered a combination of physical and mental stresses, which for some reason trigger the SIDS mechanism. But not all scientists share this point of view, because they do not find an evidence base, and therefore the reasons remain unclear.

If you do not take into account SIDS, which, for unknown reasons, takes the lives of a certain group of the population, then what is the probability of dying in a dream in other people.

If death comes at the end of life's journey, then this is natural, but very often it threatens those who are still too early to visit the "bright tunnel". Such a threat is quite real for people who snore in their sleep. They do not take it seriously and believe that they do not snore, because they themselves do not hear it, but only learn from the words of loved ones.

Brief pauses in breathing during sleep are called sleep apnea. Those who experience such phenomena, the risk of sudden death increases by 2-3 times. It is precisely such stops that "lovers of snoring" are often prone to.

During sleep, a sleeping person stops breathing. Such moments can be observed up to 10 times in 1 hour! This leads to a slowing of the heart rate, the level of oxygen in the blood drops, blood pressure rises sharply and strongly, and adrenaline is released. All this can provoke a severe attack of arrhythmia, stroke or heart attack. At such moments, it is common for a person to wake up, but, unfortunately, this does not always happen.

You should not postpone a visit to the doctor if you have the following symptoms: you snore in your sleep; fall asleep and sleep poorly; sweat a lot; often get up at night to go to the toilet; feel overwhelmed during the day.

Do not rush to die - you still have a lot to do on earth!