Oh, here’s some cheery news, heart attacks increase around the holidays!

Source: American Physiological Society (APS) Podcast

Ho! Ho! Aaaacckkk… Kidding! Well, sort of.  Cardiac deaths rise 33% from November to January with peaks on Christmas and New Year’s Day. This according to medical researchers in Los Angeles, so it’s not the stress of cold temperatures on the heart.

So what is it then?  Stress. According to the theory, stress stimulates the sympathetic nervous system which releases catecholamines, subsatances which increase heart rate and blood pressure and cause the heart to contract. Too many of these could damage muscle of the heart and also could dislodge plaque (fat deposited in the arteries) causing a blood clot which closes off flow to the heart and done.

So it’s the holidays. They aren’t easy. Take them slowly and in stride.

~Posted by David Marc Schwadron Esquire