Highest Rate Of Heart Attacks On Monday: What New Research Says

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The highest rate of STEMI heart attacks occur at the beginning of the week, with the greatest rates being on Monday, revealed research presented at the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) conference in Manchester.

ST-Segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is a serious kind of heart attack wherein a major coronary artery gets completely blocked.

Symptoms for this include shortness of breath, stomach pain, heart palpitations, sweating, dizziness, and anxiety according to the Cleveland Clinic.

The Big Point

Research conducted by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland found a “strong statistical correlation between the start of the working week and the incidence of STEMI” said Dr Jack Laffan in a press release, as reported by Fortune Well.

Thus, STEMI, a serious type of heart attack was seen to peak on Mondays and interestingly had higher than expected rates even on Sundays.

How Was It Done?

Doctors at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland looked into the data of over 10,000 patients across Ireland between the years of 2013 and 2018. This data was centred around the patients who had been admitted in hospitals as a result of STEMI between these five years.

Why Mondays?

We have all heard on ‘Monday Blues’ or ‘Sunday Scaries,’ but what leads to these serious heart attacks manifesting themselves on Mondays?

Dr Jack Laffan who led this study spoke about how the correlation between STEMI and the start of the work week has been touched upon before

Although the cause for this is still unclear, scientists presume that this phenomenon is related to the circadian rhythm or the sleep-wake cycle of the body.

Previous research on this topic also indicated that cardiovascular events are more likely to occur on Mondays. The research conducted in 2005 accounted the reason for these occurrences to be the effect of binge drinking on the weekend, however this was not proven.

"We now need to unpick what it is about certain days of the week that makes them more likely. Doing so could help doctors better understand this deadly condition so we can save more lives in future."

Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director of the charity by the British Heart Foundation