WASHINGTON — Those lords- a-leaping and ladies dancing may want to consider the downside of the holidays: Heart-attack season has arrived.
December and January are the deadliest months for heart disease, and many of the things that make the season merry are culprits: Rich meals, more alcohol and all the extra stress.
But what may make the Christmas coronary more deadly than the same-size heart attack in, say, August, is a double dose of denial.
It’s not uncommon for people to initially shrug off chest pain as indigestion. Research suggests they’re even more reluctant to visit the emergency room when it means disrupting a holiday gathering or if they’ve traveled to a strange city — meaning they arrive sicker.
Minutes matter.
“You have only a short window of opportunity to save heart muscle,” warns Dr. William Suddath of Washington Hospital Center — where a cardiac team on duty 24 hours a day aims to start clearing victims’ clogged arteries within 15 minutes of their arrival in the emergency room.
How bad each year is varies, but some hospitals say they saw an upswing in heart attacks starting Thanksgiving weekend.
At Suddath’s hospital, it started with a surprise spike the weekend before Thanksgiving — with so many critically ill patients that doctors ran out of a key heart-pumping machine and had to rent two extras.
Doctors have long braced for the seasonal upswing. A 2004 study confirmed it was a nationwide phenomenon, with peaks in death coinciding around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
But the reasons why are hard to pin down.
Vanderbilt University cardiologist Dr. Keith Churchwell says a “hurricane of factors” can tip someone at risk of a heart attack over the edge during this busy time of year.
“You can’t be too busy to ignore your cardiovascular health,” he says, but that’s a key excuse he hears.
“If you have symptoms, don’t ignore them, wherever you are,” stresses Dr. Alice Jacobs of Boston University, past president of the American Heart Association.
The good news: The nation’s hospitals are undergoing a major shift to speed care to heart-attack sufferers. It’s called “door to balloon time,” and the aim is to reopen blocked arteries with angioplasties or other procedures within 90 minutes of arrival.
