When are you most likely to have a heart attack? Next Monday, study says
Dec 18, 2018
Christmas Eve is a night for heart attacks, according to a new study.
A new study in the peer-reviewed British Medical Journal found that Christmas Eve is the worst night of the year for heart attacks.
- The risk rises 37 percent on the night before Christmas.
- Most heart attacks happen around 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
- Mondays and early morning hours were high times for heart attacks.
- Christmas Eve falls on a Monday in 2018.
Method: The study reviewed 283,014 heart attacks reported in Sweden from 1998 to 2014.
Otherwise: The study found there was an increase in heart attacks in mid-June for the Swedish holiday Midsummer.
Reasons: The researchers didn’t have a specific reason for the increased heart attacks.
People over 75 years old and those who had a history of coronary artery diseases were more likely to have heart attacks, USA Today reported.
- “We do not know for sure but emotional distress with acute experience of anger, anxiety, sadness, grief, and stress increases the risk of a heart attack,” said researcher David Erlinge, of Lund University’s Department of Cardiology, to The Telegraph. “Excessive food intake, alcohol, long distance traveling may also increase the risk.”
However: Holidays saw an increase in heart attacks, except for New Year’s Eve, which had no increased risk, The Washington Post reported.
Bigger picture: About 700,000 people have a heart attack every year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- “In the United States, about a million people a year have a heart attack, which occurs when blood flow to the heart becomes blocked, preventing the heart from getting needed oxygen,” according to The Washington Post. “If blood flow is not restored quickly, the heart muscle begins to die. People who get treatment quickly, usually because someone called 911 right away, are more likely to survive.”
