Serious and fatal heart attacks are more common on Mondays. At the beginning of the week, in fact, “the risk of suffering a lethal heart attack is 13% higher than expected”. This is demonstrated by a recent Irish research. The study was led by doctors from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and has just been presented by the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS). Doctors analyzed data from 10,528 patients hospitalized between 2013 and 2018 with the most severe type of heart attack: a St-segment elevation myocardial infarction (Stemi), which occurs when a main coronary artery is completely blocked.
“The researchers found a peak in Stemi heart attacks at the beginning of the working week, with a greater incidence on Mondays – comments Giovanni Esposito, professor of cardiology at the Federico II University of Naples and national president of Gise, the Italian Society of Interventional Cardiology – A figure which we can also find in Italy, moreover. Previous studies have shown that the circadian rhythm, which regulates the cycle of sleep and wakefulness, would play a decisive role. In fact, three important risk factors tend to be associated at the beginning of the week cardiovascular closely linked to the circadian rhythm: lack of sleep, ‘unbalanced’ hours and stress at the beginning of the week. It is a sort of social jetlag, which increases the risk of heart attack in the most vulnerable subjects”.
In short, on Monday it is easy for the so-called peripheral biological clocks present in almost all organs to ‘bust’, including the heart. The weekend lifestyle, frequent not only in the youngest, can also lead to an increase in blood pressure or sugar and lipids. “Reducing this risk is not that difficult – adds Esposito – respecting the good rules of daily life, food and physical activity, taking the correct therapies at the appropriate times, and perhaps starting the day and the week calmly, trying to at least reduce the stress”.
An increase in life-threatening heart attacks makes it essential that research continues to shed light on how and why this phenomenon occurs. “This study – concludes President Gise – adds to the already numerous evidence on the timing of particularly serious heart attacks, but now we need to better understand what factors make certain days of the week more at risk. This could help clinicians implement intervention strategies and approaches that can save more lives in the future.”
