[middleclick]

A close friend of mine, when we were 21, had heart attack and passed away. No family history of heart attacks, he was in excellent shape (cycling was his life) and just randomly out of the blue.

I do try to stay fit and eat healthy but there are times that I realize that I have no control over randomness or my genes. That is humbling and scary at the same time.

[Barrin92]

>A close friend of mine, when we were 21, had heart attack and passed away. No family history of heart attacks, he was in excellent shape (cycling was his life) and just randomly out of the blue.

Not sure if this is the case here, but fatal heart attacks in healthy physically active young adults are often the result of Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

This is a fairly common (~ 1 in 500) inheritable condition that can be easily diagnosed by ultrasound. Everybody do yourself a favour and get at least a routine checkup in every few years. It prevents deaths.

[pkaye]

That is kind of the reality I've living with myself. My father died of Leukemia when I was young. After college, one of my friends died of brain cancer. Right now my wife and I are dealing with my MILs breast cancer treatment. Meanwhile I found out I had kidney disease due to an auto immune condition a few years back and now I'm on dialysis. Just the other day my sister was talking about dealing with her MILs Alzheimer's disease. Sometimes its just hard to have an optimistic view on live when it all can go tumbling down in a moments notice.