{"id":5990,"date":"2022-09-10T22:33:49","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T22:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/?p=5990"},"modified":"2022-09-11T15:24:47","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T15:24:47","slug":"tony-siragusa-genetic-obesity-and-heart-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/?p=5990","title":{"rendered":"Tony Siragusa, Genetic Obesity and Heart Attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tony Siragusa, nicknamed &#8220;the Goose,&#8221; was a defensive tackle for 12 seasons and a major player in the 2001 Baltimore Ravens\u2019 Super Bowl-winning team. He also played for the Indianapolis Colts. From 2003 to 2015, he was Fox Sports\u2019 sideline reporter for National Football League games. He also hosted several television shows. He died on June 22, 2022, from what appeared to have been a heart attack that may have been associated with recent extensive weight loss (down from well over 400 pounds to 360 pounds).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Early Life and Football Years<\/strong><br \/>\nSiragusa was huge from birth. He attended David Brearley High School in Kenilworth, New Jersey, where he played on the defensive line, punted and place kicked. He had a 39-yard punting average and was 15-of-18 on extra point attempts. He also was the New Jersey state wrestling champion with a 97\u20131 record. He went to the University of Pittsburgh where he played defensive tackle. In his senior year, he tore his left anterior cruciate ligament, and the resultant surgery made him miss the entire 1988 season. The injury cost him a likely first-round National Football League draft pick.<\/p>\n<p>After being an undrafted free agent in 1990, he was signed by the Indianapolis Colts as a defensive tackle. Every year his football prowess improved and he helped his team almost win the 1995 American Football Conference Championship Game. In 1997, he signed with the Baltimore Ravens and was a major force in the 2000 Baltimore Ravens defense that allowed the fewest total points in NFL history for a 16-game season. In 2000, he helped lead the Ravens to their Super Bowl XXXV Championship. He retired after the 2001 season. He became an NFL games analyst for Fox News, appeared in the TV series &#8220;The Sopranos,&#8221; and opened a restaurant chain called Tiff&#8217;s.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y3zxgN5R814\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<strong>Health Problems and Death<\/strong><br \/>\nOn June 22, 2022, Siragusa died in his sleep at his home in Ortley Beach, New Jersey, apparently of a heart attack. He was 55 years old. He had many heart attack risk factors:<br \/>\n\u2022 Family history: his father died at age 48<br \/>\n\u2022 Losing and re-gaining weight repeatedly during his lifetime<br \/>\n\u2022 Possibly sleep apnea, which is associated with both obesity and heart attacks<br \/>\nI have not seen his medical records, but the odds are strong that he had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar. He was probably diabetic.<\/p>\n<p>He was a famous spokesman about prostate cancer, and just about every lifestyle factor that increases risk for prostate cancer also increases risk for a heart attack. Both heart attacks and prostate cancer are environmental diseases caused mostly by an unhealthy lifestyle:<br \/>\n\u2022 smoking<br \/>\n\u2022 not exercising<br \/>\n\u2022 not eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and other seeds<br \/>\n\u2022 eating a lot of sugar-added foods and drinks, mammal meat, processed meats and fried foods<br \/>\n\u2022 taking more than two alcoholic drinks a day<br \/>\n\u2022 storing extra fat in the belly<br \/>\n\u2022 having systolic blood pressure &gt;120 at bedtime<br \/>\n\u2022 having bad LDL cholesterol &gt;100<br \/>\n\u2022 being diabetic.<\/p>\n<p>The 10-year risk for people developing cancer or heart attacks with an unhealthful lifestyle was 40 percent for men and 25 percent for women, compared to 30 percent for the men and 18 percent for the women with healthful lifestyles (<em>BMC Medicine<\/em>, Jan 15, 2020;18(5)). See <a href=\"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/health\/heart\/heart-attacks-and-cancers-share-the-same-risk-factors.html\">Heart Attacks and Cancers Share the Same Risk Factors<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Reduce Inflammation to Help Prevent Heart Attacks and Prostate Cancer<\/strong><br \/>\nThe most effective and safe treatments to reduce inflammation to help prevent heart attacks and prostate cancer include an anti-inflammatory lifestyle that includes:<br \/>\n\u2022 trying to exercise every day<br \/>\n\u2022 avoiding red meat, processed meat, sugar-added foods, sugared drinks including fruit juices, and fried foods<br \/>\n\u2022 eating large amounts of fruits, vegetables and seeds<br \/>\n\u2022 losing excess body fat, particularly in the belly<br \/>\n\u2022 keeping blood levels of hydroxy vitamin D above 30 ng\/dL<br \/>\n\u2022 restricting or avoiding alcohol<br \/>\n\u2022 avoiding smoking and second-hand smoke<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tony_Siragusa\">Anthony Siragusa<\/a><br \/>\nMay 14, 1967 \u2013 June 22, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tony Siragusa, nicknamed &#8220;the Goose,&#8221; was a defensive tackle for 12 seasons and a major player in the 2001 Baltimore Ravens\u2019 Super Bowl-winning team. He also played for the Indianapolis Colts. From 2003 to 2015, he was Fox Sports\u2019 sideline reporter for National Football League games. He also hosted several television shows. He died on June 22, 2022, from what appeared to be a heart attack that may have been associated with recent extensive weight loss (down from well over 400 pounds to 360 pounds).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[74,52,1162],"class_list":["post-5990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-histories-and-mysteries","tag-diabetes","tag-obesity","tag-sleep-apnea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}