Britney...

LOS ANGELES - Actress Brittany Murphy died Sunday morning in Los Angeles, reports TMZ. She was 32.

The actress known for her roles in such films as "Clueless," "8 Mile" and "Girl Interrupted" suffered full cardiac arrest and could not be revived.

She was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after her husband, Simon Monjack, called emergency services. It was there she was pronounced dead on arrival.

I just found out about this and I think it is crazy!! I don't know the reason this happened but It reminds me of an article I read a while back:

What killed Ranjan Das and Lessons for Corporate India A month ago, many of us heard about the sad demise of Ranjan Das from Bandra, Mumbai. Ranjan, just 42 years of age, was the CEO of SAP-Indian Subcontinent, the youngest CEO of an MNC in India. He was very active in sports, was a fitness freak and a marathon runner. It was common to see him run on Bandra's Carter Road. Just after Diwali, on 21st Oct, he returned home from his gym after a workout, collapsed with a massive heart attack and died. He is survived by his wife and two very young kids. It was certainly a wake-up call for corporate India. However, it was even more disastrous for runners amongst us. Since Ranjan was an avid marathoner ( in Feb 09, he ran Chennai Marathon at the same time some of us were running Pondicherry Marathon 180 km away ), the question came as to why an exceptionally active, athletic person succumb to heart attack at 42 years of age. Was it the stress? A couple of you called me asking about the reasons. While Ranjan had mentioned that he faced a lot of stress, that is a common element in most of our lives. We used to think that by being fit, one can conquer the bad effects of stress. So I doubted if the cause was stress. The Real Reason However, everyone missed out a small line in the reports that Ranjan used to make do with 4-5 hours of sleep. This is an earlier interview of Ranjan on NDTV in the program 'Boss' Day Out': Here he himself admits that he would love to get more sleep ( and that he was not proud of his ability to manage without sleep, contrary to what others extolled ).

And some excerpts from a sleep study

· Short sleep duration ( <5 or 5-6 hours ) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours per night. Paper published in 2009. As you know, high BP kills. · Young people ( 25-49 years of age ) are twice as likely to get high BP if they sleep less. Paper published in 2006. · Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks. Paper published in 1999. · Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), the strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed high!! · Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in body such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical conditions, including cancer, arthritis and heart disease. Paper published in 2004. · Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heart disease. Paper published in 2006.

This feels so close to home cuz I know as young students/working professionals we tend to take advantage of our bodies. We stay up late working hard and studying, giving up sleep every now an then but when it comes down to it, our health is the most important. What good would it be to get straight A's or to get that promotion if we aren't alive or in good health to enjoy it...

I'm mos def not a saint when it comes to this. I know i have completely lost track of time while working and ended up getting little to no sleep but that has got to stop. 7 hours is the optimum amount of time an adult should sleep and we all need to make this a serious priority. Carving out time in our day to get sleep.

and to go along with that is eating well, exercising and taking care of our mental and spiritual.

We can't let the hustle and bustle of life get in the way of taking care of ourselves and being the best we can.....