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Could stress be the cause of Michael Jackson's cardiac arrest?
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News of Jackson's death from cardiac arrest spread shortly after an ambulance arrived at his Los Angeles home and transported him to UCLA Medical Center.
While cardiac arrest could very well be from a number of things, heart experts say that emotional stress plays a huge role in the life threatening condition .
Dr. Christopher Cannon, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, told ABCNews.com that stressful situations "definitely" increase the risk for cardiac arrest.
It is too early to tell, however, the exact reasons behind the 50-year-old Jackson's death. Undiagnosed heart disease is the leading underlying cause of cardiac arrest. However, other risk factors like a family history of the condition, previous heart attack or heart failure, and drug abuse or excessive alcohol intake can increase the risk of its occurence.
Thus far hospital officials have released no details on the underlying cause of death. As was the case with Jackson, the prognosis for cardiac arrest is not a favorable one.
Cardiac arrest is a condition in which the electrical signals to the heart become abnormal, making it impossible for it to properly pump blood through the body. In over 90 percent of victims, death occurs.
Cannon said cardiac arrest is different from a heart attack, which is normally the result of a blockage in an artery that supplies the heart with blood.
The reasons for cardiac arrest vary, Cannon noted. "It can strike seemingly suddenly and without warning," he said. "Unfortunately this could be a relatively common situation, though it is more often among people with heart disease, especially those with weakened hearts."
While many heart problems primarily affect those older than Jackson, cardiac arrest generally strikes people in their mid-thirties to mid-forties, according to the National Institutes of Health. Men appear to be more likely to suffer from cardiac arrest. Each year, between 250,000 and 450,000 Americans have a cardiac arrest, NIH statistics show.
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