Actually, Christmas Eve should be a contemplative day, a celebration in the circle of loved ones. But for some, the celebration ends in the emergency room. On the evening of the 24th, the risk of a heart attack is particularly high, say scientists from Sweden in the journal "BMJ".

The team led by David Erlinge of the Karolinska Institute evaluated the data of all patients listed in the Swedish Heart Registry. A good 283,000 people were therefore admitted in the years 1998 to 2013 with an infarction in a Swedish hospital. In the register, the doctors noted various information, in addition to age and weight, for example, whether someone smokes cigarettes or taking medication. Also, the onset of infarct symptoms is recorded as accurate as possible to the minute.

Based on this data, the researchers now calculated whether more people had an infarct on Christmas Eve, the first or second Christmas Day than in a comparable period two weeks before or after the holidays.

According to the study, especially on Christmas Eve more infarctions occur:

  • There were 50 infarcts per day in the reference period, on average, on Christmas Eve 69.
  • On Christmas Day, there were on average 65 cases,
  • on the 2nd there were on average 61 cases.

Especially those over 75 years old as well as people who had diabetes or had heart problems were affected.

Great emotions

It has long been known that more people have an infarct in the morning hours than at other times of the day - this is confirmed by the latest data from Sweden, where the risk was highest at 8 o'clock. However, this was not the case on Christmas Eve. On this day the danger was greatest in the evening at 22 o'clock.

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From this kind of study can not be deduced, which cause is exactly behind it. The scientists suspect, however, that the charged emotional state at Christmas is the deciding factor: Because strong feelings, positive as well as negative, can contribute to the fact that someone suffers an infarction - this is known from previous investigations.

That not all holidays overuse the heart, the study also shows. Because the researchers additionally examined the infarction rates at Easter as well as during the midsummer festival celebrated in Sweden. At midsummer, the rate was also higher, but at Easter, there was no difference to the reference period. So it should not hurt to actually treat Christmas quite contemplatively.