🫀Now that’s it’s been revealed that Senator Lindsey Graham died of an aortic dissection, I wanted to provide some clarity as to what it is (and isn’t).
As you see👇, the aorta is like the water main, a huge artery that sends oxygenated blood to the entire body. It’s under extreme pressure - every time the heart beats, it expands a little and has to withstand the force of blood pumping. To do this, it has to be elastic - able to bounce back after being stretched.
In some individuals with atherosclerotic disease (hardening of arteries), the inner aorta wall becomes hardened. Imagine a very old rubber band that is brittle and crumbles when you stretch it rather than stretching and bouncing back. The aorta wall crumbles slightly, allowing blood under high pressure to make its way between the inner and outer walls of the aorta.
After just a few heartbeats (insufficient time to really do much about it in many cases), the blood peels the inner and outer walls of the aorta away from one another, causing it to burst. I’ve treated a patient with it - and he didn’t make it. It’s tough to survive.
How to avoid this? Tough to detect in advance that it’ll happen. So… Eat well (including fatty fish with Omega 3’a), lower your cholesterol, keep your blood pressure normal (exercise and weight loss help a lot).
May Senator Graham rest in peace.
BREAKING: An initial examination from the DC Medical Examiner’s Office has determined that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) died as a result of “Aortic Dissection due to Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease”. In layman’s terms, this means a tear in the aorta caused by hardening & narrowing of arteries as a result of underlying cardiovascular disease.
DC Medical Examiner’s Office statement:
“The death certificate will be PENDING until all the toxicological and microscopic testing are finalized and at that point the death certificate will be updated to reflect the cause of death and appropriately classify the manner of death.”