Collection of symptoms during holidays may raise risk for heart attack

CLEVELAND (WKRC) - A new study says the holidays hike your risk of having a heart attack. Holiday heart syndrome is generally a collection of symptoms that some people experience at the holidays, triggered by a number of things, including a lot of holiday parties, overeating, stress and heartburn, which can be a trigger for many people. That's because you tend to eat really rich foods around the holidays that you don't necessarily eat the rest of the year. Specialists at the Cleveland Clinic say large, higher-fat meals that fill up the stomach can trigger heartburn and cause irritating symptoms. The problem is that some of those symptoms are also what you might feel if you are having a heart attack. As for what else can be part of this syndrome, it may be some of the things mentioned in a study from Sweden. It found heart attacks actually jump 40 percent on Christmas Eve. The highest risk time for a heart attack is 10 p.m. Christmas Eve, but researchers are not sure why. The holiday may not be the cause of the heart attack. Since eating, drinking alcohol and family stress are all part of what's tied in to heart events with holiday heart syndrome, pay attention to how you are feeling in the time leading up to Christmas Eve or your holiday. Excessive fatigue, the feeling of heartburn or even shortness of breath can all be early warning signs. If you start to experience these, make sure you tell your healthcare provider right away. Most can be treated with a variety of medical and lifestyle interventions, but you want that to happen before a serious heart event sets in. Almost all holidays appear to have a slight risk of raising heart attack risk, according to study from Sweden, with the exception of Easter.