How to survive Christmas
Is it true that heart attacks are more common during the Christmas season than during other times of the year? Why is this so? —queenie_ keds@gmail.com
Yes, heart attacks occur more frequently during the Christmas season than at other times of the year. American and other foreign studies show that the incidence of heart attacks increases by as much as 30 percent during the holidays and that deaths around this season increase by around four to five percent compared to the average for the rest of year. While there are no similar studies yet in the Philippines, Filipino cardiologists have observed the same trend in our country. Evidently, the festive Christmas season, which lasts more than two weeks in the Philippines, is bad for the health of Filipinos, especially those with existing heart conditions, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
Why heart attack incidence peaks during Christmas
There are a number of factors that work together to make Christmas a particularly deadly time of the year. For one, the season can be quite stressful—traffic is worse, financial obligations multiply, and holiday chores, from buying gifts to food preparations, are often rushed. Stress contributes greatly to higher blood pressure and aggravation of heart disease.
People around this time of the year also tend to overindulge in food and alcohol. In the Philippines, the Christmas season is a nonstop food fest, and holiday food is notoriously bad for the heart. It is high in sugar, salt, cholesterol, and saturated fats—lechon, ham, oily dishes containing red meat, and all sorts of sweets and
kakanin. Booze also flows freely during the holidays. Scientific evidence indicate that eating a meal that is high in saturated fats might help to trigger plaque rupture in diseased coronary arteries, while partaking of too much salt can stress the heart of people with hypertension. Drinking excess alcohol, on the other hand, can trigger irregularities in heart rhythm such as atrial fibrillation.
People with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease also tend to neglect their maintenance medications during the holidays. Because of the merrymaking, they sometimes forget their meds. Unless taken regularly and religiously, maintenance medications do not protect adequately.
One possible reason the incidence of fatal heart attacks is higher during Christmas is that people who develop chest pain or other symptoms of heart attack often ignore the symptoms attributing these instead to overexertion, stress, overeating, or some other cause (overeating, stress, etc.)
Ways to survive the holidays
Here are some suggestions to help you enjoy Christmas while keeping your heart beating well:
• Do not stress yourself. Try to avoid the Christmas rush. If you have not planned your Christmas chores early, let them go. You need not please everybody at Christmas.
• There are more parties to go. Remember to eat moderately. Do not go for second servings.
• Pass up on sweet, fatty, and salty food. Indulge more on vegetable and fruits.
• Take it easy on alcohol.
• Be mindful of your maintenance medications.
• Don’t be a couch potato. Be physically active for at least 20 minutes each day and don’t miss your exercise routines.
• Have enough rest and sleep.
• If you feel something is wrong with your body such as a chest pain, don’t just wish your symptoms away. Seek medical help as soon as possible. In a heart attack, time is of the essence. Life-saving drugs that can quickly dissolve a blood clot in the heart are now available. But they have to be administered immediately, preferably within an hour after the onset of the heart attack, and in a hospital.
Evidently, the festive Christmas season, which lasts more than two weeks in the Philippines, is bad for the health of Filipinos, especially those with existing heart conditions, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.