Holiday Heart Syndrome is not a new or made-up condition. Too much alcohol, too much salt, too much … [+]
It may be the most wonderful time of the year. But that’s not going to stop social media accounts from spreading their conspiracy theory-laden versions of Holiday cheer. People or bots (sometimes it’s difficult to tell which is which) have been getting their Santa claws into recent headlines that have warned about “Holiday heart syndrome” and twisting such headlines to serve their anti-vaccination agendas. Some social media accounts have claimed that this long-established medical condition is instead actually a cover for Covid-19 vaccine-related deaths. For example, an Instagram post from an account named @iheartmindy asserted that “Now they’re blaming people dropping dead on the happy holidays because of course.” Umm, of course? Of course, what? The post went on to say, “They’re totally not just making [expletive] up to cover up for the fact they just tricked people into taking an experimental clot shot that weakened their immune system as they head into cold and flu season.”
Hmmm, talking about making bleep up. This @iheartmindy Instagram account provided no real evidence to support her or perhaps its claims. Meta, which owns Instagram, has labelled this Instagram post as “False Information, reviewed by independent fact-checkers.” That’s not surprising because holiday heart syndrome, otherwise known as alcohol-induced atrial arrhythmias, is not a made-up condition. It’s been known since 1978, which is when doctors first found an association between excessive alcohol consumption and the risk of developing a cardiac arrhythmia, which is an irregular heartbeat. In the case of holiday heart syndrome, these arrhythmias tend to occur in your atria, which are the two smaller chambers of your heart. Atria is plural for atrium just like Dua Lipas or maybe a Dual of Lipas is plural for more than one Dua Lipa. The “holiday” part of the name came from the fact that when you are at your company’s holiday party, pretending to like the people that you work with, or any holiday gathering for that matter, you could end up, surprise, surprise, drinking too much alcohol.
As you probably know, no real doctor should say, “You want to binge drink? Go ahead. Do that as often as you’d like. There’s no risk with that.” With a little too much of the sauce, so to speak, you could end up telling your co-workers and boss what you really think of them. You could also end up in the broom closet with the wrong person such as Georgette from accounting or perhaps even George from accounting. But binge drinking brings a number of health risks as well. And some of these risks, you may take to heart. Alcohol could somehow end up messing with your heart rate and rhythm to the point that you get stuck in a bad atrial rhythm such as atrial fibrillation. The exact mechanisms behind such a link are unclear. Alcohol may slow down the electrical signals in your heart. It may affect how long the atrial in your heart relax before they are able to contract and squeeze blood forward again. Alcohol may increase the levels of catecholamines and free fatty acids in your body. It can also end up perturbing your sympathetic nervous system. All of these things could result in tearing up your heart’s electrical conduction system in different ways.
The Holidays can be a stressful time, which could further pre-dispose you to Holiday Heart Syndrome. … [+]
Other holiday circumstances may further contribute to the risk of such atrial arrhythmias. That gigantic pâté sculpture of Elon Musk at the holiday party could be loaded with fat and salt, which could combine with alcohol to predispose you to an irregular heartbeat. There’s also the stress of Holiday encounters or conversely the lack of enough Holiday encounters, leaving you feeling lonely. Regardless of how happy Holiday songs may sound, the Holidays can be a heartfelt time in a bad way. Dehydration can play a role too because while trying to talk up Samantha from sales, you may forget to drink water and keep yourself well hydrated.
Holiday heart syndrome can occur even if you are drinking alcohol for the first time in a long time or perhaps ever. Symptoms tend to start around 12 to 36 hours after you’ve had too much of the giggle juice. You may feel some dizziness, lightheadedness, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, or chest pain, pressure, or some other type of discomfort. You could feel very tired. You may even pass out. If you haven’t noticed, many of symptoms can be similar to symptoms that you feel when drunk. So recognizing that you have holiday heart syndrome may not be straightforward.
The most common abnormal rhythm is atrial fibrillation, which is when your atria contract is a rapid disordered manner. But other types of irregular heart rhythms are possible such as atrial tachycardia, premature ventricular contraction, and atrial flutter. In the majority of cases, the irregular heart rhythm and symptoms resolve within 24 hours.
Holiday heart syndrome is not necessarily a ho, ho, ho type of problem, though. It can end up with more serious outcomes. Holiday heart syndrome can progress to strokes, cardiac arrest, and even death. You can end up having more permanent damage to your heart.
It can be tough to predict who may suffer from Holiday Heart Syndrome. You really can’t really say, “Oh, geez. Marsha looks like the type who’s gonna have holiday heart syndrome.” You don’t necessarily have to have a family history of such problems or a history of any other type of heart disease. Now, if last Christmas you gave your heart abnormal rhythms, this year, to save you from tears, you may end up seeing someone special like a medical doctor. Around a quarter of people who suffer an episode of Holiday Heart Syndrome end up having a repeat one within the ensuing year.
It’s not clear how common holiday heart syndrome may be. A number of people may suffer through an episode without reporting it to medical doctors. That’s because what you happens in the 24 hours after drinking too much alcohol may not be so clear, in more ways than one.
What’s clear, though, is that anti-vaccination accounts have been trying the “let’s throw this against the wall and see if it sticks” approach when it comes to disseminating disinformation and conspiracy theories. They can seize a condition like holiday heart syndrome that’s been well established decades before Covid-19 vaccines came out and try to link the two without providing much real evidence in a heartbeat.
