Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter

Usually when you hear of men dying from heart attacks you automatically think he was old and grey. But can a young man, say between age 17 and 35, get a heart attack?

Technically, the answer is yes and no. If you've ever heard of a man between these years dying suddenly with a 'heart condition', it probably wasn't a heart attack as some would conclude. They possibly suffered from sudden arrhythmia death syndrome (SADS), which is a condition in which the channels that regulate the flow of electrical charge to the heart do not behave normally.

Therefore, the electrical function of the heart (the heart's rhythm) becomes abnormal. Structurally, there is no occurrence of heart disease.

Blockage

Cardiologist Dr. Hafeezul Mohammed explained that a heart attack is a blockage of the arteries that carry oxygen to the heart muscle causing part of the heart muscle to collapse. Hence, it is a different conditio>This doesn't mean that young men are immune to heart attacks. Dr. Mohammed pointed out that apart from those who were simply born with abnormal hearts, most instances were caused by what he called "unusual conditions". One of them is vasculitis, which is an inflammation of the walls of blood vessels, thus limiting the blood and oxygen flow to the heart. He also described the effects of homocystinuria, which is an inherited disorder that has a tendency to develop blood clots in the veins and arteries. There is also the rare case of the heart being affected by rheumatoid arthritis. He also pointed to what he termed malignant coronary disease, which has been detected among men of Indian descent in the Eastern Caribbean.

Generally, men over 50 continue to be the most likely sufferers of heart attacks and that usually relates to factors such as obesity, smoking and lack of exercise. So gents, enjoy your youth but try to keep the consumption of alcohol to a certain level, keep your blood pressure at a safe limit and eat up those fruits and veggies. What you do now, will affect your heart either positively or negatively as you get older.

Additional source: www.sads.org.uk.