Once getting over the initial shock of hearing about the sudden, premature death of Tim Russert of heart disease my next thought was too bad he was overweight and didn’t adequately address that risk. He was medicated for high blood pressure but still had an enlarged heart, likely a sign his blood pressure was not optimally controlled. He certainly was given statins long ago to manage cholesterol and LDL. His levels of these were likely quite low. Yet he still became one of the many who die each year from their first heart attack, whose first symptom is sudden death.