massive heart attack at age 35

I would lean more toward drug use. I can't tell you how many times I have taken care of people with complaints of chest pain who have ingested cocaine an hour or 2 before presenting to the Emergency Department.

But like the PP above me said: hard to tell without more history.

I would assume genetics.

My father had a massive, though thankfully not fatal, heart attack at 40, which isn't that far from 35.  In his case it was heredity and perhaps poor food choices (although he was not overweight and was not a smoker).  He had blocked arteries and needed a quadruple bypass.  He had never used drugs and did not have a congenital heart defect.  Both his father and his grandfather died of heart attacks in their 50's, though, and both my father and my uncle ultimately died from heart issues (though not until they were in their 70s).

First guess would be hereditary.

A very good friend of mine and my late husband's spent his 35th birthday in the hospital recovering from a quadruple bypass. He never did drugs, but he didn't have a healthy lifestyle at that point.

I had a massive heart attack the week I turned 35. Mine was due to a congenital heart defect that has been monitored over the years. Many surgeries when I was born and as a child . It's been worse as I've gotten older. Some adults find they have congenital later in life and never know they had it.

ETA- I have a friend that diagnosed about a year ago and they did surgery as well, but they have fixed it for her.

My sister had a major heart attack at 36 (she almost died & has about 40% functioning heart now).

She was a heavy smoker.

She had been diagnosed with diabetes and lost weight to get off her meds. She put the weight back on but didn't go back to the doctor. The signs were there in hindsight - she was losing weight without trying, hair falling out. She was drinking a 12 pack of coke a day. Lots of stress.

I would say either could cause it. but I'd probably lean towards hereditary.. I had open heart surgery at the age of 32. Turns out that heart murmur all the doctors all my life had brushed off as nothing was something that shouldnt have been ignored. When I met with the surgeon it was already June(2006) and he told me if I didnt have the surgery I'd not see the end of that year.

really gets your attention when a well respected heart surgeon tells you that, and you realize half the year is already over.

I had to have my aortic valve replaced,and had a number of other issues with my heart because of how faulty my valve was.but am doing ok now on blood thinner for life and have a mechanical valve clicking away.. He said that what happened to John Ritter is what would have happened to me, my aortic valve and aorta would have just ripped apart and I would have been dead. Turns out my father had what we were told was a "massive heart attack" at the age of 46 in 1994, now I wonder if it was the same problem, but who knows.

I know 3 people, 2 men and a woman who died from massive heat attacks in their mid 30s. None were drug users, or even smokers, but autopsies revealed previously undetected heart conditions in all 3.

Yes, it could be either of those two along with a long laundry list of possible causes.

We lost a 7 yr old girl in our community due to a massive heart attack a few years back. Autopsy showed single coronary artery, so just one artery supplying her little heart. That was a congenital anomaly, another example of something that can cause an actual heart attack (myocardial infarction).

I know a young woman who had one at 32. It was attributed to a combination of genetics and lifestyle choices.

ohh I'm so sorry for your loss.

I find it so interesting what people's first thoughts are. You have me whose opinion has been formed by what I have seen during my career and others who have opinions based on life experiences.

That's why I enjoy these boards so much.

A guy I went,to,high school with had a heart attack at 21, was a fit guy, ate properly, didn't,smoke, wasn't overweight. Luckiy he survived. He out it down to shitty luck and genes.