Through TV, internet and newspapers, I would hear that an accomplished expert or a diligent and dedicated scholar died suddenly in the middle of a stressful and strenuous work, which is often referred to as “death by overwork”. So what is death by overwork? What are the causes of such deaths? What should we do to prevent it?
First of all, let’s talk about overwork, if a person often work too long, rest is not good and in a state of tension, stress, a long time will produce anxiety, insomnia, memory loss, depression and make the body in a long-term state of stress. And this stress will trigger the human heart, brain, lungs, kidneys and other diseases and lead to death. Therefore, “death from overwork” is only a common saying, there is no such diagnosis in clinical medicine, fatigue is only a symptom, and the final cause of death is some corresponding diseases.
Among the deaths caused by overwork, cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases dominate, especially the heart. Sudden cardiac death can be triggered by overexertion, emotional stress, excessive physical and mental activity. Sudden cardiac death is a sudden, unexpected, non-traumatic death caused by cardiac causes within a short period of time, usually lasting only one hour from the onset of symptoms to death. Sudden cardiac death is one of the leading causes of death in patients with cardiovascular disease, with approximately 400,000-500,000 people dying from sudden cardiac death in the United States each year. Studies in China show that the incidence of sudden cardiac death in the Chinese population is 41.84 per 100,000, which means that the total number of sudden cardiac deaths is about 544,000 per year, mostly in men aged 35-70 years in adults, yet a large number of high-risk groups are not aware of this risk.
There are dozens of causes of sudden cardiac death. The common causes are.
1. Ventricular fibrillation (ventricular fibrillation)
Ventricular fibrillation can occur in patients with pre-existing organic heart disease, or in patients with normal hearts. Excessive fatigue, mental stress, cold weather and other factors can make the original heart disease sharply aggravated or due to sympathetic nervous state so that the secretion of catecholamines sharply increased and lead to ventricular fibrillation. When ventricular fibrillation occurs, the ventricular beat frequency is 250-500 beats/min. Too fast a frequency makes the ventricles contract weakly and cannot effectively send blood from the ventricles to the aorta to supply the heart, brain and other organs for use. The brain will cause generalized convulsions in about 15 seconds of ischemia, which is clinically known as As syndrome, and will cause death if not rescued in time.
2.Coronary heart disease
Coronary heart disease is the abbreviation of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease. The arteries supplying the heart (called coronary arteries) are severely narrowed due to atherosclerosis, which reduces the blood flow to the heart and causes ischemia and hypoxia. In the case of excessive fatigue, mental stress, etc., the heart rate accelerates and the oxygen demand of the heart increases, which, together with the existing ischemia and hypoxia of the heart, can lead to acute ischemia and hypoxia of the heart and cause myocardial infarction or unstable angina and ventricular fibrillation or acute pump failure leading to death.
3.Heart failure
The incidence of sudden death in patients with cardiac insufficiency is 5 to 10 times higher than the incidence in the general population. The patient’s original heart disease has caused cardiac insufficiency, after treatment can be in a relatively stable stage, the stimulation of excessive fatigue and other factors cardiac insufficiency will sharply aggravate and cause ventricular fibrillation or pump failure death.
4.Cardiomyopathy
Patients already have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, focal cardiomyopathy and other conditions that they are not aware of, ventricular fibrillation can occur in a stressful state.
5, ion channel disease
The heart structure examination is normal, but due to genetic or cardiac gene mutation caused by tissue ion passage changes appear abnormal cardiac electrical activity. Non-cardiac causes of sudden death are commonly cerebrovascular disease and pulmonary embolism. If the patient has hypertension or cerebrovascular malformation, the blood pressure suddenly rises due to excessive fatigue and mental stress, and cerebral hemorrhage occurs due to cerebrovascular rupture, which can cause respiratory and circulatory failure and death if it occurs in the brain stem. Pulmonary embolism is caused by thrombus dislodged and blocked in the pulmonary artery, resulting in rapid respiratory and circulatory failure.
Sudden death often occurs very quickly, and most patients die before they can reach the hospital. However, sudden death is not unpreventable. Prevention of sudden death should pay attention to the following aspects.
1, regular medical checkups: the elderly themselves are at high risk of heart disease and various diseases, should regularly go to the hospital for medical checkups. Young and middle-aged people work under stress, fast-paced life, work and life stress are also prone to coronary heart disease, hypertension and other diseases. Regular medical checkups and early examinations facilitate timely detection of diseases, early treatment and reduce the risk of sudden death. When doing heart-related examinations, it is recommended to do not only ECG examination, but also cardiac ultrasound examination, as well as coronary CT examination or coronary angiography examination. Cardiac ultrasound can detect diseases with abnormal heart structure, while coronary CT or coronary angiography can detect heart vascular disease. Some units of physical examination or medical examination department did not do these examinations, will miss the corresponding heart disease conditions.
2, avoid excessive fatigue and mental tension: excessive fatigue and mental tension will put the body in a state of stress, raising blood pressure, increasing the burden on the heart and aggravating the original heart disease. Even if there is no original organic heart disease can also trigger the occurrence of ventricular fibrillation. Therefore, each person should make arrangements for their work and life, control the pace of work and work time, not too fast and too long. There is a certain amount of rest and relaxation time every day to relieve fatigue and mental tension, so that the heart and the function of the organs can be restored.
3, quit smoking, limit alcohol, balanced diet, weight control, proper exercise: smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, high-fat diet and obesity will significantly increase the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Drinking large amounts of alcohol and emotional excitement will raise blood pressure and increase ischemia and hypoxia of the heart, while quitting smoking and limiting alcohol, balanced diet, weight control, regular and moderate exercise, and maintaining good habits will reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
4, pay attention to the danger signals of over fatigue and pay attention to the precursor symptoms of the onset: long-term over fatigue will trigger some changes in the body. (1) anxiety and irritability, irritability is difficult to control (2) memory loss, forgetfulness
3) Poor concentration 4) Insomnia and poor sleep quality 5) Headache, dizziness and tinnitus 6) Reduced sexual function 7) Significant hair loss, etc.
When these conditions occur in the body, you should realize that you may be overly fatigued and should adjust the pace of work and rest properly to allow the body to recover its functions. Some people have some manifestations before the occurrence of sudden death, such as angina, palpitations, chest tightness, difficulty in breathing, headache and dizziness, and even pale face and heavy sweating occur on that day. When the above situation occurs, you should immediately stop working, rest as much as possible lying down, take drugs to treat the corresponding disease. If you can’t relieve it, you should go to the hospital immediately.
5, for patients who have suffered from coronary heart disease, hypertension and other diseases should be under the guidance of doctors to adhere to drug treatment: often some patients in the treatment of a period of time, feel better or think that the disease has been cured, the treatment of drugs to stop using, so that coronary heart disease, hypertension continues to progress or worsen, under the action of certain external factors, such as excessive fatigue, mental tension, sudden cardiac death can occur, some people because of work Some people forget to take the medicine or forget to bring the medicine because they are busy, which will also aggravate the condition. Therefore, it is very important to adhere to medication treatment under the guidance of a doctor, and patients should face the reality, accept it, and take the treatment seriously.
Acquire knowledge and seek treatment in time. Once a patient dies suddenly, if someone with certain knowledge of resuscitation around can give immediate treatment, part of the patient can survive. In addition to hospital medical staff, some related departments of society, such as airport staff, traffic police and the general public, such as television, newspapers to learn some first aid knowledge, can be defibrillated in the shortest possible time and other treatment, will greatly improve the success rate of sudden death patient rescue.