The Merry Christmas Coronary

It sounds dreadful, but statistically the holidays see more heart attacks than any other time of the year.  Beginning with Thanksgiving, rising at Christmas and peaking around New Year’s Day, heart attacks and the holidays sadly go hand in hand.

Courtesy: freefoto.com

Doctors say there are many reasons for this.  First, many people ignore their symptoms which they chalk up to overeating and drinking; and second, they don’t want to interrupt the festivities with a trip to the emergency room.  Stressful family situations, the pressure to spend on gifts and travel, even the particulate from wood burning in the fireplace are all seasonal triggers for heart attack and stroke.  Cardiologists refer to this as the Merry Christmas Coronary.

The New York Times reports on a stunningly simple yet effective exercise that can predict the risk of heart attack in a person and even reverse the course.  It’s the ability to touch your toes.  You sit on the floor with your legs straight ahead of you, point your toes upward, bend from the hips and without bending your knees, touch your toes.  Apparently, a flexible body correlates to flexible arteries and the ease with which blood moves through them.  Rigid arteries require the heart to work harder.  Some older hearts can’t handle that strain.

The researchers did their work in Texas and in Japan and they found a direct link between flexible bodies and flexible arteries in men and women older than 40.  No such link was drawn from younger individuals.

It’s true that flexibility decreases with age, but some older folks maintain flexibility better than others.  The good news is we can all become more bendable with simple stretching.

The doctors don’t say that anyone unable to touch their toes is at sudden risk for a heart attack, but they do want anyone with chest discomfort, especially the next two weeks, to take their symptoms seriously and not postpone getting help.

In the meantime, sit down and see if you can touch your toes.  If you can’t, spend some time each day working on it.  Let’s avoid the Merry Christmas Coronary if we can.

Tagged as: arteries, Christmas, coronary, family, flexibility, Health, heart attack, holidays, pressures, stress, stroke