I’m trying to find information about the long-term effects of malnutrition on cardiac muscles. I know that emaciation weakens the heart muscle and have read of “sudden cardiac death” and increased risk of myocardial infarction, but haven’t had much luck with finding detailed descriptions/statistics.

The hypothetical type of case that I’m interested in is a female who received good nutrition as a child but became malnourished and underweight around age 13, staying under recommended weight for at least five years and also having amenorrhea. (Basically, anorexia cases).

How reversible is damage of this sort? Are there any specific vitamin supplements that would be especially beneficial in a case like this? Also, I’d be very interested in reading explanations of the exact physiological reasons/processes for “sudden cardiac death,” not that I’m doubting that it’s a risk, it’s just that most of the resources I’ve found have been a little vague on exactly what happens to cause it.

Any information is extremely appreciated, thanks for your time.

sudden cardiac death is called sudden cardiac death for a reason. However, coronary heart disease is most commonly the problem, which is just fat in the arteries which in turn blocks proper blood flow.

340,000 people die each year from CHD, most of these cases are SCD.

The problem with fat is that it's a lot harder to get rid of than to obtain obviously, and in cases of over-weight people who become fit, although much fat can be lost and thousands of benefits to lose weight, there are still irreversable effects (naturally irreversable anyway, as there is always coronary artery bypass surgery amongst others)

In that particular hypothetical... Well, this is an interesting case.

The following is copied straight from a website as I couldn't remember how to spell half of the procedures

 

What are treatments for survivors?

 

If a cardiac arrest was due to ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation, survivors are at risk for another arrest, especially if they have underlying heart disease.

 

Survivors of cardiac arrest must have all causes corrected to prevent future episodes. Possible causes include myocardial ischemia (inadequate blood flow to the heart muscle), arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), etc.

 

Possible tests and treatments include

 

cardiac catheterization

electrophysiologic tests

coronary artery bypass surgery

balloon angioplasty or PTCA

antiarrhythmic medicine

implantable cardioverter / defibrillator

implantable pacemaker

heart transplant

 

http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1056719919740HSFacts2003text.pdf

The above link is to a pdf file with facts about this.

http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1079736729696HDSStats2004UpdateREV3-19-04.pdf

This one is another pdf full of statistics from 2004.

Hope this helps.