Has anyone else been following this? People are saying that she was a Type 2 Diabetic... And this is what led to her cardiac arrest.
What do you all think? I don't buy it. My theory is that she was Type 1 and misdiagnosed and they were treating the WRONG disease which led to DKA and cardiac arrest.
This would have happened to me if I had not changed doctors. At 22 yrs old and 5'4" and 120lbs I was diagnosed with Type 2 and sent home with T2 drugs, NOT insulin.
I wonder how many people are out there right now that have Type 1 are being treated for Type 2 instead????
It is a scary thought and means we desperately need more awareness ESPECIALLY in the medical community!
I guess we will hear about the autopsy in the coming weeks, but my gut feeling is that she was T1 and never got the treatment that she needed.
Brittany Murphy, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiac Arrest: Speculation and Science
Mary Carmichael
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What
made Brittany Murphy’s heart stop beating? We’re not likely to know why
the actress went into cardiac arrest until toxicology reports come out
sometime in the next six weeks. One clue, however, is that according to
her mother, she had type 2 diabetes. If that’s the case, her tragic death may have some simple medical answers.
Gossip Web sites have been quick to point out
that Murphy was plagued by rumors of drug abuse and anorexia, both of
which can put a strain on the cardiovascular system. But type 2
diabetes can be even harder on the heart. The high glucose levels
associated with the disease affect the arteries, making the vessel
walls rough and more likely to collect fatty deposits that block the
flow of blood. If blood flow to the heart is interrupted, the cardiac
muscle becomes starved for oxygen and dies.
Even when they’re
being treated effectively, people with type 2 diabetes are at a much
higher risk for a heart attack or stroke than most of us. Having the
disease is as big a risk factor as having already had one heart attack.
When diabetes patients do have heart attacks, they’re about twice as likely to die of them. Sixty-five percent of diabetes patients ultimately die of cardiovascular disease or related complications.
At 32, Murphy was young to go into cardiac arrest, but even children with diabetes
can have heart trouble. It's impossible for us to know, without
examining her, what lead to the cause of death. But someone in Murphy's
situation may have had other risk factors for a heart attack-regardless
of any rumors about anorexia and drug use. At the time of her death,
she was reportedly
“taking prescription meds for flu-like symptoms she had been
experiencing for several days.” Catching the flu can make a person more susceptible to heart attacks, and it’s especially dangerous for diabetics, since it raises blood glucose levels. If blood sugar rises too high, the patient may start vomiting uncontrollably
(as Murphy reportedly did before her death) before slipping into a coma
and dying. Some of the medications used to treat flu symptoms can also
cause abnormally high blood pressure, which is itself a risk factor for heart attacks.
It's
medically plausible, given what we know about these conditions (though
not about Murphy's personal health) that someone with Murphy's alleged
health may have had a heart attack or that type 2 diabetes might have
contributed to it. But it's somewhat surprising that Murphy had
diabetes in the first place. The actress, who was often criticized for being too thin,
wasn’t exactly the face, or for that matter the body, of type 2
diabetes. According to the American Heart Association, half of men and
70 percent of women who have diabetes are obese. Perhaps that explains
why many celebrities with diabetes-at least the ones on this list-have
the other form, type 1, which isn't linked to obesity. (Type 1 diabetes
occurs when the pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin, type 2 diabetes
occurs when the body ignores the insulin the body does make.)
Murphy
also didn’t have two of the other main risk factors for type 2
diabetes: being over 45 and belonging to certain ethnic groups
(African-American, Latino/Hispanic American, Native American,
Asian-American or Pacific Islander). But it’s possible she had a family
history-a common risk factor that often explains the phenomenon of the
“thin type 2.” As this writer
makes clear, “If you think being thin gives you a free pass from this
deadly disease, well, it may have a surprise in store for you ... No
one should assume he’s immune to this disease.”
Maybe that’s a
lesson we should be learning from Brittany Murphy, too. But at this
point, of course, all we can definitely say about her death is that it
happened too soon.
I think If Brittany Murphy had T1 she would have went into a diabetic coma not had a heart attack.which is what they are saying.
I heard it was a combo of eating disorder, prescription pills and having type 2... which all sounds like a perfect combo for something horrible to happen ..which is so sad, i liked her a lot clueless was the best... rollin with the homies :)
This is true Evamarie... I just see Latant Autoimmune Adult Onset as constantly being misdiagnosed. I was told I was T2, and honeymooned for almost 2.5 years.... I'm sure that all of the above were factors, the drugs, the eating disorder etc. but being treated for the wrong disease definitely would not help... Also getting "really skinny" can often be a byproduct of untreated diabetes. I guess I'm not saying that this IS what happened, I am saying that this possibility exists and we REALLY do need more awareness. Awareness that adults also get autoimmune diabetes. Believe it or not there are millions of doctors that are out there that are blind to this.
I had been wondering how this D thing, so I'm glad you posted. It sounds more and more like rx drugs were involved, so D would have only been one factor.
Going back to being diagnosed corrcetly as T1 as an adult, when I was in grad school I had 2 friends diagnosed w/ D within a month of each other. Both thin and no family history of T2. Both were put on oral meds for T2 before finally getting in w/ an endo and getting appropriate T1 treatment. I know thin people can get T2, despite the stereotype, but women in their 20's and 30's getting autoimmune diseases is so common, I was frustrated that neither of their doctors even considered T1!! If it weren't for me pushing both of them to see an endo to be sure, who knows what would have happened!
This is true Evamarie... I just see Latant Autoimmune Adult Onset as constantly being misdiagnosed. I was told I was T2, and honeymooned for almost 2.5 years.... I'm sure that all of the above were factors, the drugs, the eating disorder etc. but being treated for the wrong disease definitely would not help... Also getting "really skinny" can often be a byproduct of untreated diabetes. I guess I'm not saying that this IS what happened, I am saying that this possibility exists and we REALLY do need more awareness. Awareness that adults also get autoimmune diabetes. Believe it or not there are millions of doctors that are out there that are blind to this.
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You know i didnt even think of it like that - that they diagnose you as T2 because u are still producing some insulin and i certainly didnt think u still produce it for that long, i see what u are saying now... its been a long time since i was diagnosed so i am not up on it I thought T1's couldnt go without insulin but like u said if your in the honeymoon phase you can survive.
You may very well be correct that she was T1. I recently lost my sister to cardiac arrest during DKA. She had gone into DKA many times, and in fact, had just been released from the hospital 3 days earlier. THis is what we noticed. Though my sister had been hospitalized with DKA many times, in the weeks before her death, she was noticably thinner. She also complained about abdominal pain, but blamed it on a pulled muscle from a fall. I notice that Brittany Murphy also had stomach pain. I dont know what that is, but the mechanics of DKA somehow. Of course, the throwing up and all that is common too. The official cause of death of my sister was cardiac arrest due to DKA.
Here's something that everyone must know. When someone goes into cardiac arrest, do the fast CPR without breathing. There is enough oxygen in the blood until an ambulance gets there. But the thing that will save your loved one's life is if the hospital uses the cooling method to drop the body temperatureimmediately. In my hometown in Ohio, they dont use it. In Columbus, they do. THe ambulance personnel start cooling in route to the hospital and the hospital takes over. I've read that the survival rates jumps from 10% to 85%.
This all makes sense! I was misdiagnosed as a t2 but went into DKA. They thought I was having a panic attack because of my heavy breathing, then I was told I might have a blood clot on my lung. My own doctors didn't recognize DKA because they thought I was t2.