Holidays ring in heart attack season

Last update: December 4, 2007 - 9:34 AM

Those lords-a-leaping and ladies dancing may want to consider the downside of the holidays: Heart attack season has arrived.

December and January are the deadliest months for heart disease, and many of the things that make the season merry are culprits: Rich meals, more alcohol -- and all that extra stress.

But what may make the Christmas coronary more deadly than the same-size heart attack in, say, August, is a double dose of denial. It's not uncommon for people to initially shrug off chest pain as indigestion. Research suggests they're even more reluctant to run to the emergency room when it means disrupting a holiday gathering, or if they've traveled to a strange city -- meaning they arrive sicker.

Doctors have long braced for the seasonal upswing. A 2004 study confirmed it was a nationwide phenomenon, with peaks in death coinciding around the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

Why is harder to pin down. Vanderbilt University cardiologist Dr. Keith Churchwell says a "hurricane of factors" can tip someone at risk of a heart attack over the edge during the holidays. Factors include skipping medications while traveling and even cold weather, which can constrict blood vessels. Plus, the extra exertion of snow shoveling can cause a heart attack.

THINK YOU'RE SMARTER THAN A CHIMP?

Think you're smarter than a fifth-grader? How about a 5-year-old chimp? Japanese researchers pitted young chimps against human adults in tests of short-term memory, and overall, the chimps won.

Researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University said even he was surprised. He and colleague Sana Inoue report the results in today's issue of the journal Current Biology.

One memory test included three 5-year-old chimps who'd been taught the order of Arabic numerals 1 through 9, and a dozen human volunteers.

They saw nine numbers displayed on a computer screen. When they touched the first number, the other eight turned into white squares. The test was to touch all these squares in the order of the numbers that used to be there. Results showed that the chimps, while no more accurate than the people, could do this faster. Even with six months of training, three students failed to catch up to the three young chimps, he said.

What's going on here? Matsuzawa thinks two factors gave his chimps the edge. For one thing, he believes human ancestors gave up much of this skill over evolutionary time to make room in the brain for gaining language abilities.

The other factor is age. The memory for images that's needed for the tests resembles a skill found in children, but which dissipates with age. In fact, the young chimps performed better than older chimps.

To watch videos of the chimps, go to tinyurl.com/2kwst6.

DOES SUPER GLUE REALLY HEAL WOUNDS?

During the Vietnam War, emergency medics began using the Super Glue to seal battle wounds in troops headed for surgery. The glue was so good at stemming bleeding that it was credited with saving many lives.

Nowadays, professional athletes often use it to close small cuts to get back in the game in a hurry. Veterinarians also use it. Studies show that although the glue can be useful in emergencies, it can also irritate the skin, kill cells and cause other side effects.

There is a safer alternative. In 2001, the Food and Drug Administration approved a similar, anti-bacterial form of the substance, which is marketed as Dermabond.

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