This is the Worst Time of the Year For Heart Attacks

Dr. Oz says this is the worst time of the year for heart attacks.
Americans have the most heart attacks on Christmas Day, the day after Christmas, and News Years Day. If you are overweight, the risk is higher.

Stresses - Planning, shopping, wrapping, cleaning, cooking, hosting - Rising stress hormones elevate your blood pressure and heart rate, setting the stage for a heart attack.

Piles of rich food - Eating one high fat meal can render your arteries less effective at pumping blood for up to 12 hours. Fat can cause the lining of your arteries to spasm, reducing the space for blood to flow. At the holidays when one big meal follows another, your arteries have few chances to recover from the damage.

Alcohol - The chemicals in alcohol can be toxic and irritating to the heart muscle. Drinking alcohol in excess can trigger atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that increases your risk of stroke, heart attack, and heart failure.

Beware The Open Fire - The particles in wood smoke contain toxins that are damaging to your arteries and can cause respiratory conditions such as asthma to flare, all of which leaves you more susceptible to a heart attack. Make sure your fireplace is well ventilated, light it at just a few special times, such as Christmas Eve, and don't sit right beside it.

If you, or someone you are with, are experiencing any symptoms of a heart attack, don't wait to see if it passes, call 911 and get to the nearest emergency room.

Heart attack symptoms:
Pain or discomfort in the center of the chest that may feel like pressure, squeezing or fullness.
Pain in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
Shortness of breath.
Sweating and exhaustion.
Nausea and dizziness.

(Women should be on the lookout for the last 3 symptoms since women often don't experience the classic center chest pain and therefore may not get the fast treatment they need)

Source from the Dr. Oz website.

This is very true. Everyone please be extra careful in the next few days to make sure your health comes first.

Is it possible to have small heart attacks and not realize they're heart attacks ?

I thought this was an interesting question and I didn't know the answer to it so I looked it up. On the website HowStuffWorks.com I found this:

I never knew you can have a heart attack and not know it!

My auntie had several small heart attacks without knowing it. She'd had some minor chest pain, put it down to muscular pain, didn't bother her for a while. Then it happened again, no fierce pain, but it was there again.

She mentioned it to her son, who had been a paramedic when he lived on this side of the pond (he's now in Canada), and he told her to go see her doctor. When she did, after lots of tests, it turns out she'd had a series of small heart attacks.

A runner friend of mine had been having some pains in her back right between the shoulder blades when she ran to the point where she would have to stop running. She was in great shape (50 years old) but just had some bad genes... she was running a half marathon and the pains came back even worse about 3/4 of the the way through the race, she was taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with a heart attack and had to get an emergency by-pass procedure done. Never ignore pains in your body... especially if they are in your chest or upper back!!!