Beware holiday heart attacks
The holiday heart attack season is around the corner.
Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day are the deadliest days of the year for heart attacks, according to numerous studies — but researchers don’t know why.
Susan Fox-Wasylyshyn, a nursing associate professor, believes stress accompanying the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, increased expenses, overindulging in large meals that are high in fat and salt and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol could be contributing factors.
The peak days are part of a larger pattern, when heart attacks rise during winter.
Often, people suffering heart attacks don’t recognize they are in serious medical trouble until it is too late, said Fox-Wasylyshyn.
The findings came from two studies the University of Windsor nursing researcher did that involved 135 people treated for heart attacks at two hospitals in Windsor and two in the Detroit area.
Her first study looked at what was different about people who seek immediate treatment for a heart attack versus those who wait for several hours or days.
She found some patients delayed treatment because they tried to ignore the symptoms, minimized their importance or thought their symptoms didn’t match what they believed were indications of a heart attack. Those who recognized they were suffering a heart attack sought immediate medical help.
“Your average person might not be aware that some heart attacks present without chest pain,” Fox-Wasylyshyn said. “If the symptoms weren’t what they anticipated, then they were more likely to delay.”
In a second study, she studied the same group of people to determine what makes a good match between what people expected a heart attack would feel like and what they experienced.
“Those who had a good match between their expectations and their actual symptom experience were those who had chest pains,” Fox-Wasylyshyn said. “Those who had a poor match were those who didn’t have chest pain.”
She also found that if patients had mild to moderate chest pain, they were confused about the origin. Fox-Wasylyshyn concluded that people tend to expect severe chest pain if they suffer a heart attack. If they didn’t have that, they attributed the symptoms to something else.
“Among the 135 people that I studied, 14 per cent had no chest pain and 31 per cent experienced non-severe symptoms,” Fox-Wasylyshyn said. “Those are the ones who are more likely to delay. That’s a pretty significant percentage.”
Many people who had already suffered a heart attack didn’t realize their symptoms might not be the same if they had another attack.
Fox-Wasylyshyn noted that a heart attack is not always accompanied by a heavy or squeezing pain in the chest.
“People need to be aware of the other possibilities,” she said. “There might be upper body discomfort in one or both arms without chest pain. It could be pain in the neck, the back or the jaw or even the upper part of the abdomen. Anything like that that lasts for a few minutes or comes and goes is some cause for concern — particularly for a person who is a known risk for a (heart attack).”
Aside from chest and arm pain, heart attack symptoms can include shortness of breath, fatigue, lightheadedness, nausea and vomiting, breaking out in a cold sweat and palpitations.
“It’s terribly not unusual for women to experience extreme fatigue or lack of energy,” Fox-Wasylyshyn said. “Sometimes that is the only symptom.”
She acknowledges if there is no chest pain, it is difficult for individuals to self diagnose, but added it is better to have a false alarm and have unusual symptoms checked.
“The longer you wait, the more damage is occurring to your heart,” Fox-Wasylyshyn said. “It’s better to disrupt the holiday dinner, even if you’re not certain about the cause of it. When in doubt, check it out.”