As Australians continue to mourn for the death of the international cricket icon, Shane Warne, the news of his passing at the ripe age of 52 has caused thousands of Aussie men to pay their doctor’s a visit.
While the cause of death has been ruled as a heart attack, according to news reports there was no drug or alcohol involved and the father-of-three has just started a new diet programme to improve his health and wellbeing.
Speaking on Today, Warne’s manager James Erskine, revealed that the legendary spinner had just finished a 14-day only liquid diet as a way to lose weight, and often completed these types of programs as a way to stay in shape.
And though Warne was a lifelong smoker and had been diagnosed with Covid-19 on August 2021, seeing a once very successful athlete’s life surrender to a “likely heart attack” is enough to make one consider their own mortality.
In an interview with Herald Sun, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price says there has been a remarkable rise in men making GP appointments after news of Warne’s death broke.
“Fifty to 60 per cent said people came in talking about it [Shane Warne’s death] and then wanted to know information about their own heart health,” Dr Price said.
Searches on The Heart Foundation’s website support Dr Price’s statement, as their heart attack-related content has doubled in the 24 hours after Warne’s death, with their most clicked content focused on the warning signs of a heart attack, and the heart age calculator which allows people between the ages of 35-75 to estimate their risk of heart diseases.
According to cardiologist and director of Victoria Heart, Dr Andris Ellims “heart disease is the commonest cause of death in Australian adults” and is urging people to be “on the front foot with their own health.”
Fortunately, medical expert Dr Nick Coatsworth has highlighted certain red flags to pay attention to if you are concerned about your heart.
“If you’ve got a family history of heart attacks, of people in your family in their 40s and early 50s, that’s a warning sign,” Dr Coatsworth said.
“If you’re getting symptoms like chest pain when you’re exerting yourself, if you’re feeling more short of breath than usual, you go up a flight and stairs and it feels like you ran 100 metres, these are signs that your heart is not pumping as effectively as it should.”
Dr Coatsworth also emphasises that even if those symptoms aren’t present, if you are someone over the age of 30 or have an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island background it’s necessary to give your local GP a visit to do a risk assessment on your heart health.