A new American Heart Association study shows heart deaths spike during Christmas and New Year, even in warm climates. Dr. Tiffany Di Pietro says stress, poor sleep, and holiday excess drive the increase, with victims getting younger. The busiest days are Christmas, December 26, and January 1.
Well, the American Heart Association publishing a new study on holiday health concerns. The research confirms an uptick in heart-related deaths over Christmas and New Year's, but removes cold weather as a possible factor. So since the data comes from New Zealand where it's warm in December, this is of course very interesting. We want to bring in Dr. Tiffany Di Pietro. She's an internist, board-certified cardiologist, and women's health expert. Thanks for being here. This is such an important subject matter for anybody who has had heart disease in their family, and I know a lot of our viewers have. So, you know, we want to talk about what are some of the contributing factors to this stat when that study talks about taking out the cold factor.
Mm-hmm. So what we do know is these patients that have the higher heart attack statistics really, and we say wintertime for us because it is our wintertime, they These patients typically do have more risk factors to begin with, so they have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, they're smokers, but what we know is that it's just an increased amount of stress over the holiday season. Emotional stress, physical stress, you know, taking the bags to and from the car up in the north shoveling the snow, but really it's the emotional stress behind everything. It's, it's having the family over, getting the house ready.
Right.
And stress does increase blood pressure, increases heart rate, increases heart attack risk.
Lack of sleep too.
Lack of sleep.
Lack of sleep doesn't help. We talked about that as mothers of young children. And the age range of these deaths in this study are a little surprising. We're seeing that the age has come down a little bit, younger adults.
A little younger, and we see that kind of on Wall Street too. We see these kind of powerful late 30s, early 40s men having these massive heart attacks, and again, it has to do with stress.
Right, and a lot of people, of course, can probably relate to some information in this that, you know, you don't exercise as much, you're eating and drinking drinking a little bit more. Sure, I mean, so we all do it, right? And now the advice would be, okay, well, get out, start moving, and don't eat as much, but it's hard to do. So what's your motivational advice as a cardiologist?
Keep in the back of your mind that it's possible that bad things happen to good people. I never tell my patients they can't have something, it's just everything in moderation. So, you know, have your glass of wine, don't have 6.
Yeah, okay, let's talk about the warning signs. I think that is absolutely key because we were talking just before we went on camera about how people don't want to raise alarm. It's Oh, I feel a little funny. I don't want to say anything. I'm over at my family's house and I don't want to cause a problem, but there are definitely warning signs.
I tell my patients, trust your gut. If your gut tells you something's wrong, something's typically wrong. Mm-hmm. You know, so obviously chest pain is the big predominating symptom, but a lot of times just an overriding nausea, feeling very tired for no reason. Granted, if you didn't sleep the night before, it's one thing, but feeling extraordinarily fatigued for no reason. Jaw pain, arm pain for really no reason. But what it really boils down to is it's your gut feeling. If something's not right, call 911 and go to the hospital, right? Because time is heart.
Time is heart. And you said that this is the busiest time for you.
Hands down, busiest time. I'm on call the 26th and I'm on call the 31st. I'm gonna be very busy.
It's really that much of an increase for you?
It is, it is. And heart attacks, statistically, number one day of the year is Christmas Day. Second is the day after Christmas. Third is January 1st.
Very important information. Thank you for being here to share that with us. That's Tiffany Di Pietro.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you.
