E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSAn accidental drowning fueled by drug use has been ruled the official cause of Whitney Houston's death. Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC's chief medical correspondent, talks to NBC's Willie Geist about what role the drugs in Houston's system may have played in her death.
The bare-bones release of Whitney Houston’s cause-of-death Thursday by the Los Angeles Country Department of the Coroner’s office wasn’t shocking, but it did raise some questions.
The singing great died at age 48 of drowning (in a hotel room bathtub), atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and cocaine use, the report indicated.
The primary cause was accidental drowning and it’s uncertain whether she had a heart attack. But the L.A. Coroner’s office indicated that cardiovascular disease was a contributing factor and there were signs of “chronic usage” of cocaine.
According to a spokeswoman for the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office -- who stressed she was not commenting on Whitney Houston’s death in particular -- “the chronic use of cocaine can have various effects on the heart” and cardiovascular system.
“Cocaine, like other stimulants, can exacerbate pre-existing heart disease, such as coronary artery disease or hypertension. In the presence of these pre-existing diseases, cocaine can cause heart failure, heart attack or sudden death,” the spokeswoman Sarah Gordon said.
Chronic use of cocaine has been shown to accelerate the development of atherosclerosis, the formation of plaques inside blood vessels, even in young people. Those plaques can eventually lead to severe narrowing of the vessels, causing heart attack, stroke, or a transient ischemic attack, a so-called “ministroke.”
An accidental drowning has been ruled as the official cause of Whitney Houston's death. However, the coroner says cocaine and other drugs used shortly before the tragedy played a role. NBC's Craig Melvin reports.
As many older people who have experienced a TIA can attest, a ministroke can leave you disoriented, cause fainting, and falls. If one happens to be in a bathtub at the time, that could be deadly.
A University of California San Francisco study found that “ischemic stroke/TIA is a common neurovascular presentation in patients with a remote history of cocaine use, often as a result of atherosclerotic disease.”
Additionally, bits of plaque can break off and block a vital vessel, also causing a heart attack or stroke.
There’s more danger of that happening after something stimulating, like exercise. A study of sports-related deaths among schoolchildren in Australia concluded that “the fatal episodes often resulted from a complex interplay of a variety of factors, including physical exertion, possible trauma, and underlying organic disease” including, in one case, atherosclerosis.
Smoking a cigarette and getting the rush of nicotine, or, as Whitney Houston did, taking cocaine, can have similar cardiovascular effects as exercise. So can hot water.
A 1991 study of 151 drowning and hyperthermia deaths in spas, Jacuzzis and hot tubs found that in 14 percent of them, cocaine – with or without alcohol ingestion – was implicated as a contributing factor.
The anti-anxiety prescription medication Xanax and the antihistamine Benadryl were also found in her system but are not believed to have contributed to her death. However, nothing can be confirmed until the final report is released.
On TODAY Friday, chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman noted that the coroner didn't connect the other medications to her death, but that the drug interactions shouldn't be ignored.
"It doesn’t have to be one drug in a whopping amount; it can be a lot of little things, and when you compound it, it can be enough to cause death," Snyderman said.
Whatever the combination of factors that led to her death, there is an important message in Houston’s sad story: The effects of chronic cocaine use can cause physical damage capable of haunting users even long after they’ve stopped.
Related:
Leave a Comment:
How is this the important message of her story? She never stopped. I would say the important message of her untimely death is - don't think that you can chronically, continually use a tossed salad of drugs and go on to live a long life. (Unless you're Keith Richards, of course!)
Repeat: "The important message". Do you really think the article was written for a dead person? We are to get the message: Don't use cocaine; it can have long term effects. That is the important message.
Brenda, I think you missed my point. Yes, cocaine is unhealthy, I think we can all agree on that. I just thought it odd that the writer would use the phrase "long after they've stopped," in reference to a story about Whitney Houston, because obviously she never stopped. I didn't see the relevance of the comment. Hope that's more clear.
Given all her money, I would have thought that an annual physical--especially for someone who's been in rehab for cocaine--might have spotted problems with her heart and arteries. She obviously was in frequent contact with doctors based on all the medications prescribed.
As Steven Tyler remarked the other night, the music business will kick your ass. And for someone who had achieved the pinnacle as Houston did, who served as a cash register for so many and for decades, the wear and tear must have been horrendous.
I feel quite sorry for her.
@ Blue Burner: I'm sure her doctors were aware of the heart disease that she already had. Hardening of the arteries is a "big deal". A major occasion, such as the Grammies, would raise the anxiety levels quite a bit. That alone could have been the trigger.
I don't know if she was still using or not. I don't care. She was a fabulous artist while she was with us. She did what she did to cope with the frustrations that her life entailed and none of us will ever know what they were in any real sense.
I also lost the "love of my life" to cocaine. His diet & lifestyle contributed, but to die at 42 from one massive heart attack, I have to think the years of cocaine use contributed. We broke up over it some 14 years prior, but stayed in touch and he never quit using.
@ Blue Burner- There is no magical pill to make your arteries soft and young again. We put so much faith in modern medicine, however, all it can do is tell you that your arteries have hardened. There's still no better medicine than good old fashioned taking care of yourself.
I should stop doing lines with Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan
Keith Richards has managed to perfect that Mr Burns balance of problems. One in a million.
But seriously, I'm with the doc that said you can't ignore the effects of mixed drugs. The Benadryl by itself wouldn't have been a factor in her death but you combine the mild drowsiness Benadryl brings with the mild drowsiness pot brings with the mild drowsiness a hot bath brings, throw in some atherosclerosis and a jolt of cocaine and suddenly you're mini-stroking your way to Davy Jones Locker.
How True.
I suppose you could add Hunter Thompson, though he eventually committed suicide from health problems related to all the drugs he did. I believe he was the one that stated, " Drugs aren't for everyone, but they always worked for him")
It is also known that cocaine can result in coronary artery spasm that temporarily occludes blood vessel flow but the vessel spontaneously reopens and flow is normalized. Certainly if she had plaque in coronary artery walls (ie, coroners detailed report needed) this might have accelerated the situation if she was in hot water (no pun intended) just sets up a situation that this was the fait accompli for her.
The sad truth is it doesn't much matter what the proximate cause of death is...she pretty much chose a path that destroyed her talent years ago....she'd been a dead woman for a long time...
She was a druggy and an alcoholic who chose drugs and alcohol over taking care of her body and her beautiful voice. You can say what you want and write her life story any way you want. The ending will always be the same....prescriptions drugs, illegal drugs, alcohol and a bath. She may have drowned, but it was the drugs that killed her, and I have no sympathy for anyone who walks down the same road that Whitney Houston did. She made her choices and now her family is stuck having to live with those choices. It's hard to believe that if she loved them all so much that she was willing to hurt them so badly by her actions and her choices.
@Dachs -- you are correct, but try showing a little empathy. We all use bad judgment and make mistakes at one time or another in our lives. Luckily, most of us don't have to pay for our mistakes with our lives, such as Whitney. This is a very sad situation indeed and there were probably some other underlying issues, i.e., depression, etc. that could have contributed to her use of drugs. I am sure her family loved her very much, especially her daughter.
thank you Dachs; You are right in saying that the person you replied to should show some empathy for Whitney. We should remember that America is a drug-addicted culture. Let's pray that none of our relative abuse drugs.
Why no sympathy? She made mistakes and paid for them with her life. Why be so hard on her?
I find it hard to feel badly for Whitney. I feel for the people she hurt when she died. I had a friend who went this way. Someone who's set on destroying themselves this way doesn't let those close to them talk them out of it or rehab it out of them.
People like yourself never cease to amaze me, Dachs. WHERE is the empathy here??? Yes, it's a given that the lifestyle choices Whitney continued to make had been slowly killing her for a long, long time, but, that's no reason to rake her over the coals. I choose to take the empathy route towards people for two very important reasons - life is hard and we all do everything we can to cope with it. Some of us are smart (and strong) enough to choose healthy ways to cope and others of us aren't as smart, nor as strong.
No one wants to destroy themselves, nor continue to hurt those who love us. We're all just trying to cope. Whitney was no different. The music business will chew you up and spit you out, and the bigger your talent, the more you can get chewed up. From everything I read, the combination of Whitney's stubborn nature and hating being controlled and told what to do, combined with literally being under the thumb of Clive Davis, started her downfall almost as soon as she came out of the gate.
She was beautiful and had an amazing voice and stage presence. I choose to remember her good, not her demons.
Exactly THX you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved.
I'm going to re-post this for those of you who are jumping all over Dachs:
Did you ever think for a moment that maybe Dachs has been through this with someone he/she loved? A person can only have so much "compassion" before they break, in your narrow point of view I'm related to Dachs I have no empathy for Ms. Houston, she chose her path.
After 8 years of having empathy and trying to save my daughters birth father I finally gave up (yes he's still using) in your infinite wisdom how long should I have tried to save him? How many more years of the lying, the stealing, the in and out of rehab/hospitals for overdoses, should I have to endure? I left him when my daughter was less than 6 months old, but I still tried to help him for another 7 1/2 years after that.
Maybe it's YOU who should have some empathy for those of us who have endured the realities of drug addiction.
So the moral of the story is...take a shower!
People die from drowning in the shower, too. Take a hot shower after a hard workout and the blood vessels dilate causing fainting. Seems bizarre, but I've known two (healthy)teenagers who died this way, and I've fainted in the shower myself. Take a cool shower after working out.
Thank you so much for sharing, LB. Please push in your keyboard tray.
Dachs.
You got it all figured out don't you. One size fits all. For one who professes to have no sympathy you left out another one of your traits.....No mind. You need help Pal.....Better get it soon.....I have pity on people that are "stuck" with you.
Plastic Man
I agree with you on Dachs...
There will be more.
It's fortunate for her family that her death was conveniently ruled 'accidental' - but let's face it, she didn't accidentially ruin her health with cocaine. The sad fact is, Ms. Houston might have had a long and healthy life if she hadn't been addicted to drugs.
Heart disease does not build up for one day and the plague is usually building up for years. The most recent survey is the death rate ofBlack women, African-American females, with heart disease is higher than any other races.
Whitney is a rich lady; there are a lot of signs and symptoms of heart diseases could be noticeable via the lab or CXR or physical check up or EKG. She is supposed to have annual physical check up, such as OB-GYN. And her heart problem should have been checked already. And the other thing is she would have the signs and symptoms of cocain usage which her personal doctor could have picked up the problems.
If her doctor had picked up the problem, her doctor was supposed to refer her to the Recovery Program and continued to monitor her health condition. Heart disease can be preventable only if the patient has been found sooner, not later.
People who are addicted to dry drugs and alcohol do not have a reputation for having physical examinations, or for telling their doctors the truth about what they ingest.
Rehab does very little, aside from trying to give the set of rules addicts require in order to begin to live 'clean' lives. If the addiction is strong, the new rules won't evolve into a new lifestyle. W.H. wasn't the kind of personality to walk away from all the situations that enabled her addiction.
It's always sad to see someone lose her life because of an addiction she could not conquer.
Her doctor could refer her until he/she was blue in the face, you can't force someone to get help, you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. Ms. Houston has no one to blame but herself.
Hardening of the arteries is arteriosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the plaque buildup within arteries that causes them to narrow. Sorry--I teach Anatomy & Physiology.....
It's past time that the medical community explain how plaque is formed in the arteries. Atherosclerosis usually happens to older people, so it must have alot to do with the kidneys, filters of the blood. If the kidneys aren't working properly, then they are allowing things to get by, like calcium. Too much calcium has the same effect as the white stuff that accumulates on a faucet. Calcium is the hardener in "hardening of the arteries." How are kidneys damaged? They can be damaged by pain medications taken over time, antibiotics, and other prescriptions that can damage kidneys. You have probably heard tv commercials telling you to tell your doctor if you have kidney problems before taking a certain medication. Shouldn't a competent doctor about to prescribe medication that can damage kidneys already know of your kidney condition, before prescribing medication? Why in God's name should it be left up to the patient to know the condition of his/her kidneys? Most people, or doctors, don't know that kidney damage is both the cause and result of hypertension. Most people don't know that kidney damage is progressive, so that medications taken at an early age may lead to kidney failure at a later age. It's time that the medical community stop telling us to avoid certain foods and to instead focus on the most neglected and yet most important topic of health, the kidneys.
the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is fairly well described in the literature. Just try looking
older people have more issues besides kidney problems
kidney problems usually lead to LOW calcium, not high calcium, as the kidneys are responsible for converting the inactive form of vitamin D to the active form. Nonwithstanding that fact, high calcium in the blood has nothing to do with calcium in the arterial walls. You need some kind of injury or pathology (ie atheroscleorisis) for calcium to be deposited there. It doesn't just come out of solution like that
Doctors are well aware of the link between high blood pressure and kidney disease. In fact, hypertension is the number one cause of kidney failure in the US
You have demonstrated a lack of understanding of the most basic physiology....don't think that just because you don't know something, no one else does
Why is this published? There was no crime? All they should have said was that her death was ruled an accident. period.
Way to sanitize the "cause of death" for a popular entertainer. It would be rude to say she snorted herself into oblivion.
Perhaps so, but, she still deserves our empathy. Life is hard. People don't just wake up one morning and say, "...I think I'll start destroying myself; that sounds like a plan!" We makes those choices because we're just trying to cope. Say what you will, but, Whitney was just trying to cope. Not everyone is smart enough, nor strong enough, to choose healthy ways of coping.
It wouldn't surprise me if you are related to Dachs, wtfdotcom. Develop some compassion. You'll be a better person for it.
Did you ever think for a moment that maybe Dachs has been through this with someone he/she loved, loveblue?? A person can only have so much "compassion" before they break, in your narrow point of view I'm related to Dachs I have no empathy for Ms. Houston, she chose her path.
After 8 years of having empathy and trying to save my daughters birth father I finally gave up (yes he's still using) in your infinite wisdom how long should I have tried to save him? How many more years of the lying, the stealing, the in and out of rehab/hospitals for overdoses, should I have to endure? I left him when my daughter was less than 6 months old, but I still tried to help him for another 7 1/2 years after that.
Maybe it's YOU who should have some empathy for those of us who have endured the realities of drug addiction.
Who would take Benadryl and Xanax together? That alone sounds like a potential recipe for death.
That is what I thought also, and it would probably kill me anyway. Maybe thats why she needed the cocaine. How sad to see these brilliant lives snuffed out by uncontrollable drug use.
the worst medical care in the USA goes to either the very poor or the very rich. i have friends who have been life long addicts and they have told me that their still alive because they can't afford but so much junk (drugs) and when absolutely necessary they see regular doctors (not star type doctors).
Analyzing it won't bring her back....what a great talent she was...Rest In Peace Whitney.....
A coke head to the bitter end. What a waste.
And, my guess is that you will be cold-hearted to the bitter end, Sonya.
I think the best thing anyone can take from any drug addiction and early death is the one we all seam to have forgotten as we have gotten older, "DON'T DO DRUGS" if you NEVER try them then you "NEVER" have to try to kick them. And with so many celebrities dieing so young from these issues it should be even a better reminder to maybe help the next generation, to teach our children as well as our grandchildren by maybe pointing out at the ages that they maybe starting to try drugs by simply reminding them of the celebrities that they liked as a younger child that has passed so young themselves do to drug usage and maybe that would help many young people from even trying them in the first place, once you die there is no second chance! Maybe this type of a lesson would help the next generation to avoid the tragedy's of the life and death of drug users. From what I gather it "ONLY" takes one time with some drugs as well as some personality's and your addicted for life, or trying "NOT" to be addicted for the rest of your life. Very sad to see yet another so talented star cut short of life but maybe if we point out the bad issues and the passed stars from the drug issues, just maybe we can save a few from the future. We can only hope.
So SORRY Ms. Houston R.I.P.
no one has the right to judge you or anyone else for that matter. You was born and you passed as we all will one day, sorry your story has to be aired to the world!
A good reason to stick with opiates.
The Union: The Business Behind Getting High
Plaque forms from cholesterol. Your body makes its own & some of it is food related. If you have a family history of high cholesterol or coronary artery disease have ALL family members (even your kids) get their cholesterol count checked (simple blood test). Cholesterol levels can be maintained through diet, exercise & medication, if your physician decides to prescribe it.
I think it came as a huge surprise to all of us that cocaine had a lot to do with Whitney Houston's death. NOT.
Bobby Brown was her downfall. It's sad.
She was a real talent. It was tragic to see how her character had changed. She had been shining and radiant,....and then later on it was more like "side-stepping, sloppy, shady eyed coke head". I didn't know her at all nor am I the biggest fan, but I felt like running over to save her,...or get someone to do "something". "Oh my God,...what has happened to her" ?!!!
If you do cocaine, you are ASKING FOR IT,...and you will suffer the consequences.
Bobby Brown did not force her to do drugs, she has that little thing called free will, no one can make you do anything you don't want to do, unless of course they're holding a gun to your head, but even then you have the choice to concede or die.
Lets see she mixed xanax(a substance which depresses the nervous system) and cocaine(a powerful stimulant) and who's surprised she is dead? *slaps forehead in angst* Seriously, people need to be more careful about the things they mix. Oh, and why are we still reading about this? Its not news, its olds.
If you don't care, don't read the articles, KatGirl. No one is holding a gun to your head.
Hard not to read it when its smeared every other line on every major news page.
Kat- from reading the rest of loveblue's comments it's apparent she's never had to deal with drug addicts personally.
All the other junkies that passed in the last year have no meaning only the junkie singer matters is the message I get from all these articles.
Junk k i l l s junkies.