Health
Wednesday 14 June 2023
I STUDY. On Monday it is easy for the peripheral biological clock, also present in the heart, to “bust”.
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 conducted by doctors from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and the Royal College of Surgeons in Irelandwho analyzed data from 10,528 patients hospitalized between 2013 and 2018 with the most severe type of heart attack: ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), which occurs when a main coronary artery it is completely blocked.
Giovanni Esposito, cardiologist
“Researchers found a spike in STEMI heart attacks at the start of the work week, with a higher incidence on Monday – comments Giovanni Esposito, professor of cardiology at the Federico II University of Naples and national president of GISE -. A fact that we can also find in Italy, however. In previous studies it has been shown that the circadian rhythm, which regulates the cycle of sleep and wakefulness, would play a decisive role. In fact, three important cardiovascular risk factors closely linked to the circadian rhythm tend to be associated at the beginning of the week: lack of sleep, “unbalanced” schedules 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 other words, on Mondays it is easy for the so-called peripheral biological clocks, present in almost all organs, including the heart, to “go off”. Furthermore, the often different lifestyle of the weekend, frequent not only in the youngest, can lead to an increase in blood pressure or sugar and lipids. «Reducing this risk is not that difficult – adds Esposito -: respect the good rules of daily life, food and physical activity, take the correct therapies at the appropriate timesand perhaps take the beginning of the day and the week calmly, trying to at least reduce 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 the GISE president – adds to the already numerous evidence on the timing of particularly serious heart attacks, but now we need to better understand what are the factors that 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.”
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