# Heart Attack or Stroke . . . Drug Use? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heart-attack-or-stroke-drug-use/651842 "2013-03-02T19:25:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heart-attack-or-stroke-drug-use/651842/1 "2013-03-02T19:25:00Z")
Let’s suppose a an otherwise healthy 20-year-old with no history of health problems has a heart attack or stroke one day. What are the odds that this person was using illegal drugs? ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heart-attack-or-stroke-drug-use/651842/2 "2013-03-02T19:41:11Z")
345.7 : 1 ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heart-attack-or-stroke-drug-use/651842/3 "2013-03-02T19:52:29Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > Let’s suppose a an otherwise healthy 20-year-old with no history of health problems has a heart attack or stroke one day. What are the odds that this person was using illegal drugs? I dunno. There can be concealed heart defects that give no symptoms except for a quick death one day. John Ritter had one of those. I can’t imagine the purpose of this question except to speculate rather meanly on someone’s tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heart-attack-or-stroke-drug-use/651842/4 "2013-03-02T20:44:30Z")
Less than 50%, IMHO. Congenital heart and brain abnormalities are probably more common. I haven’t kept close track, but in the last 10 years I’ve been in a lot of death reviews, including that of young folks. Cerebral aneurysms and hypertrophic heart abnormalities were not infrequent findings. On other occasions, illicit drugs were found in other folks too. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_I\_Am](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@Sam\_I\_Am](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_I_Am)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heart-attack-or-stroke-drug-use/651842/5 "2013-03-02T20:54:10Z")
I think heart attack isn’t the usual death from illegal drugs. Nor is stroke. There are, as mentioned, congenital problems that can cause sudden death in young healthy adults; a childhood friend of mine died while jogging from undiagnosed cardiomyopathy. ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heart-attack-or-stroke-drug-use/651842/6 "2013-03-02T21:31:07Z")
Cocaine can be hard on the heart. The combination of drug use and a heart defect could be bad. I know of one heavy cocaine user who died in his early 30s where the cause was listed as heart disease. On the other hand I have a friend who doesn’t even drink and he had a stroke in his early 30s. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heart-attack-or-stroke-drug-use/651842/7 "2013-03-02T21:40:17Z")
I just saw something about this on the news. A family started a charity that tries to get children checked out for these kinds of defects before something happens but fuck me if I can remember a single useful detail.