In early August, Yulia Borisova, Vera Vasilyeva and Leonid Volodarsky died in just a few days. Pictured: Oleg RUMYANTSEV, Evgenia GUSEVA, Valery Sharifulin (TASS).
The beginning of August was tragic for the national culture. People’s Artists of the USSR Yulia Borisova (98), Vera Vasilyeva (97), People’s Artist of the RSFSR Irina Miroshnichenko (81) passed away. Composer Alexander Kolker (90), author of many Soviet hits performed by Iosif Kobzon, Muslim Magomayev, Eduard Khil, Mikhail Boyarsky, Maria Pakhomenko, Maya Kristalinskaya, Lyudmila Senchina and other pop stars. “The voice of the time” Leonid Volodarsky (73), legendary film translator, writer, radio host.
The culture department of Komsomolskaya Pravda, which prepared the obituaries, will not remember the country losing so many cult names in nine days before.
And at the beginning of this August, the first president of the Sakha Republic, Senator Mikhail Nikolaev (85), academic mathematician Viktor Maslov (93), former football player of CSKA, the national football team Veniamin Mandrykin ( 41).
What kind of attack is this? After all, it is not a leap year.
The myth of the “black month”
Seriously we already started talking about the “seal of the curse”. Let’s just say, August in Russia from time immemorial is black, fatal, cursed. So he took so many good people in the first 9 days.
That is not necessary for mysticism! In fact, August has always been a blessed harvest month for us. No wonder three Spas (apple, honey, walnut) drop. And the people who lived in the USSR never heard of the curse of the last summer month.
In fact, the myth of “black August” was launched in the 90s by the political strategist Gleb Pavlovsky. In March 1996, three months before the presidential election, Yeltsin’s approval rating was just above the floor. The Kremlin has already considered canceling the election. Then the electoral headquarters was immediately headed by Chubais. Immediately, a contract was signed with Pavlovsky’s “Effective Policy Fund”, which conducted election campaigns for client money. Profitable business at that time. At that time they spared no money to come to power. Pavlovsky and developed the script for Yeltsin’s 1996 election campaign.
Political strategist Gleb Pavlovsky. Photo by Lyudmila Pakhomova (ITAR-TASS)
A heavy burden on Yeltsin’s shoulders was the execution of the White House, where the Supreme Soviet of Russia was meeting. The fateful October 1993 was immediately nicknamed “black” by the people. What the smoky White House contributed to. One of Pavlovsky’s tasks was to change the arrows from “Black October” to another month. We chose August. Fortunately, quite recently, in August, the State Emergency Committee appeared – the harbinger of the collapse of the USSR, which remained in the memory of Russians as “Swan Lake” on all TV channels. This strange “putsch” was taken as the starting point of black catastrophes. Although the USSR ordered to live long in December. The Kryuchkov-Yazov team in August 1991 did not start shooting at the White House, where Yeltsin was sitting. But Boris Nikolaevich shot the whole world live. And he urgently needed to wash …
Pavlovsky’s creative team completed the mission successfully. Somehow, imperceptibly, people forgot about “black October”, switching to “terrible and terrible” August. More precisely, his brains were cleverly changed with the help of various political technologies, for which Gleb Olegovich and his colleagues were great masters. Rising every black bast in the August line. (By the way, he was the first to widely use the Internet for political technologies in Russia). The whole country believed in the horror story about “black August”. Although it is neither historically nor statistically proven that in terms of the number of difficult, fatal events, the last month of summer in our country ranks first.
The heat is dangerous for the elderly
– In fact, there is no mysticism in the deaths of our famous artists and other respected people, – says the geriatrician, gerontologist Valery Novoselov. “The heat of early August drove them to the grave.
– Borisova, Vasilyeva, Miroshnichenko, Kolker, Volodarsky are old people, they had many diseases. Which side is the heat here?
– First of all, I want to express my condolences to the families and friends of those who died this August, to the fans of famous artists. They were part of our life. And so they left.
As for the causes of death of the August victims that you listed, Eugene … You should not think mechanically: they say that heat is a killer: this is when a person stands in the sun, sunstroke, unconsciousness, morgue. Everything is much more complicated.
The vulnerability of the elderly and/or infirm to high temperatures is well known to physicians. The health ministries of several European countries already in the middle of 2003 organized the monitoring of mortality rates. And they established a connection between the excess mortality of the population and the high temperature. In Italy, for example, in June-August 2003 it amounted to 3134 cases. In addition, in 92% of the cases they were people over 75 years of age. In total, the heat of 2003 claimed the lives of 75,000 Europeans.
In our country, this was especially evident in the summer of 2010, when there was abnormal heat in Moscow and Central Russia. It has become a serious risk factor for public health. Although the officials foaming at the mouth convinced people that there was no increase in mortality and do not believe their eyes, this was an absolute lie. Subsequently, demographers calculated that during the 2010 heat wave in Moscow alone, the death rate increased by 11,000 cases compared to July-August 2009. In Russia, the number of excess deaths exceeded 44 thousand.
Contrary to the opinion of officials and mayors of those years, academic cardiologists Yevgeny Chazov and Sergey Boytsov, respected by the entire clinical community, then published an honest article “The influence of an abnormal increase in air temperature on the mortality of the population”. In July and August 2010, against the background of abnormally high temperatures in 31 regions of Russia, a significant increase in mortality was observed, mainly due to coronary and cerebrovascular diseases, they wrote. The main risk factors for death from abnormal heat, the academics concluded, were old age and living in large cities.
The first days of August in Moscow turned out to be hot.
Photo: Vladimir VELENGURIN
– But exactly! All the celebrities who died in early August are senior citizens. As well as the former goalkeeper Mandrykin. But he had a heart attack. Maybe because of the heat. And they all died in Moscow. Only Kolker is in St. Petersburg. Also a big city. How does medicine explain the influence of heat in the increased mortality of the elderly?
– In a healthy and young person, when the weather changes or the weather changes, the body quickly adapts to the changed conditions. In the elderly (60-74 years according to the WHO classification), and even more so in the elderly (75-89) and centenarians (90 years and older), even against the background of relative health with a sharp increase in temperature air, the body cannot adapt quickly. In centenarians, even without cardiovascular problems in the heat, there is a decrease in the pumping function of the heart and its reserve capacity. This, together with a decrease in the number of skin capillaries, worsens the redistribution of blood to the skin. Age-related changes in the vascular bed in all its sections do not allow reaching the level of vasodilation required to increase heat transfer. Let me remind you that the entire human vascular bed is a grid, where the length of all fibers reaches 86,000 linear kilometers. In fact, a capillary approaches each cell. But in old age, especially with many senile diseases and syndromes, their number decreases. In addition to this, there are changes in the work, the number of sweat glands.
The volume of sweating decreases. The constancy of the internal environment, the work of the centers of the brain, which are engaged in the thermoregulation of the body, are disturbed. And nearby are the centers of respiration, the regulation of all vital functions. In the heat, this entire biological structure overheats and diseases accumulated with age worsen considerably. Against the background of all these factors, there is a break in vitality, a person from the state of “life is still possible” goes to the state of his stop. The heart refuses to work and stops. tragic ending.
– In August the heat will continue. What would you advise the elderly over 60, Valery Mikhailovich?
– The tips are simple and quite obvious. Here it is important not to forget them; after all, the one who is warned is better adapted.
1. In the summer, it is better to leave the cities that are crazy hot and go to the quieter suburbs.
2. But in the field, try to be as little as possible in the sun.
3. When outdoors, always wear a hat and carry a bottle of water with you.
4. Clothing – loose cotton, linen and more.
5. No strong alcohol in the heat. And beer! Light alcohol, only if you drink, then a little and closer to sunset.
6. Don’t forget to take your medications, forgetfulness in the heat is more dangerous.
7. In case of health problems, immediately call an ambulance.
BY THE WAY
According to a study by the Institut ISGlobal de Barcelona, last year 61,672 people died from heat in Europe. Italy had the most deaths with 18,010, Spain with 11,324 and Germany with 8,173.
FROM THE “KP” DOSSIER
Valery Novoselov. Geriatrician, neurologist, neurophysiologist, former postgraduate student of the Brain Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Graduated from the medical faculty of the First Medical Institute (now Sechenov University). Associate Professor of the Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. For more than a third of a century, he has been studying the subject of human aging. He heads the oldest scientific community of gerontologists in the post-Soviet space – the gerontology section of MOIP at Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov. Author of 15 popular books on health and aging. Permanent collaborator of Komsomolskaya Pravda
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