Dr. Michael Wayne

Heath Ledger – Rest in Peace

heath-ledger-1The late Heath Ledger won the Academy Award on Feb. 22, 2009 for his role as the Joker in the film The Dark Knight.

Heath Ledger, as we all know only too well, died on January 22, 2008, at the much too-young age of 28.  I wish him a peaceful sleep with the angels.

Unfortunately for Heath, his untimely death came as a result of getting caught up in a High Density Lifestyle.  How a High Density Lifestyle manifested for Heath Ledger was in the large number of prescription medications he was taking.

Drugs can never help you become truly healthy and they will stop you from finding your way to a Low Density Lifestyle.

In today and tomorrow’s articles, I will talk about the tragic cases of two celebrities who both were caught in the crossroads of a High Density Lifestyle by virtue of their being a victim of taking medications.

The Australian-born Heath Ledger had been in 18 movies, many of them critical and box-office successes. He received an Academy Award nomination in 2005 for his role as Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain.

His last completed role (he was acting in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus when he died, and filming was suspended) was for the film The Dark Knight, in which he plays Batman’s nemesis, The Joker.

In a November 2007 New York Times interview, Ledger had stated that his recently-completed role in The Dark Knight had taken a toll on his ability to sleep: “Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. … I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.” At that time, he said that he had taken two sleeping pills, after taking just one had not sufficed, and those left him in a stupor, and gave him an hour of sleep at best. In January 2008 he also came down with an upper respiratory illness.

When he was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on January 22, sleeping pills were found by his bedside, but an autopsy was inconclusive as to whether sleeping pills played a role in his death. Ten days later, on February 6, toxicology reports allowed the New York City medical examiner to state that Heath Ledger died accidentally from being overmedicated. It was found that he was taking six different medications—two pain medications, three anti-anxiety medications, and a cold medication.

Too many people in the U. S. are extremely over-medicated. It is not uncommon for people to be taking four, six, ten or more drugs at any one time. The interaction of various drugs in the body is always a cause for concern—there can be volatile and unpredictable reactions in the body from the many drugs, and it is one that can have potentially lethal complications, as we tragically saw with Heath Ledger.

Sadly, if only Heath Ledger knew better—then he wouldn’t have gotten sucked into the vortex of drugs and trapped in a High Density Lifestyle.

Heath Ledger, you were a gentle soul.  May you rest in peace.

Video of Heath Ledger’s Win at the Academy Awards

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