Blue Monday: The Increased Risk of Heart Attacks on Mondays

2023-07-14 14:20:22

Some days the risk of having a heart attack is higher than others. A study from Ireland has now come to this conclusion.

According to the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), more than 300,000 people suffer a heart attack in Germany every year. Together with so-called ischemic heart diseases, heart attacks are among the most common causes of death in Germany. Collectively, they are called diseases of the circulatory system. Loud statista.com With around 340,000 deaths in 2021, they were responsible for more than a third of the total of 1,066,317 deaths that year.

According to the German Heart Foundation, the risk factors for a heart attack include unhealthy nutrition, high blood pressure, lack of exercise, stress, smoking and a lipid metabolism disorder. A heart attack is always an acute emergency, but the so-called ST-stretching-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is considered a particularly severe form of heart attack. According to a new Study from Ireland This occurs particularly frequently on a certain day of the week when the risk of a heart attack is higher.

Heart attack: on which day of the week is the risk increased?

The research group led by Jack Laffan and Simon Walsh examined the connection between heart attacks or STEMI and the day of the week on which they occur. The team published the results on June 2, 2023 at the British Cardiovascular Society in BMJ Journals.

And the study shows: More heart attacks or STEMI occur on Mondays than on the other days of the week.

The study was conducted from January 2013 to March 2018 in Ireland at the two centers for the primary treatment of heart disease. A total of 10,528 patients were included in the analysis, 7,112 in the Republic of Ireland and 3,416 in Northern Ireland. On average, the patients were 53.2 years old.

The study showed that the risk of a heart attack is greatest on a Monday, i.e. at the beginning of the working week, and is 13 percent higher than the average. The phenomenon, after which the research group also named their study, is known as “Blue Monday”. This is how the risk is distributed over the remaining days of the week compared to the mean (1.0):

Monday: 1.13 (+ 13 percent) Tuesday: 0.95 (- 5 percent) Wednesday: 0.95 (- 5 percent) Thursday: 0.93 (- 7 percent) Friday: 0.94 (- 6 percent) Saturday: 1.0 (+/- 0 percent) Sunday: 1.09 (+ 9 percent)

The figures show that the risk of suffering a heart attack is also higher on a Sunday compared to the other days of the week.

“Blue Monday”: Why is the heart attack risk increased on Monday?

According to the study from Ireland, previous studies have already indicated that heart attacks occur with an increased frequency on Mondays. Scientists have not yet been able to fully explain why this is the case.

How 24vita.de reported, the strong correlation between the start of the working week and the frequency of heart attacks or STEMI is also according to study leader Dr. Jack Laffan an oddity. A possible explanation could be increased stress when returning to work after the weekend on Monday. This leads to an increase in the stress hormone cortisol in the body and can increase the risk of a heart attack.

1689392539
#risk #greatest #day #week

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.