Where have all the heart attacks gone?

Maybe our jobs are more dangerous. Hospitals seeing a 40%-60% reduction in heart attacks. 

Where Have All the Heart Attacks Gone?

Discuss.

Its almost as if the source of all our stress has left us.  Weird how that works

I'm not missing 2 - 2 1/2 hours of commuting every day I can tell you that.   I wouldn't be at all surprised if this makes a lot of people re-evaluate what they think is really important going forward.

They're dead at home waiting to be discovered in a few weeks. Fear of C-19 stops you from calling an ambulance or going to the ER. Poof, there goes your heart. Expired on the couch. The cat or pomeranian gnawing on you face for nourishment.

Appleseed said:

They're dead at home waiting to be discovered in a few weeks.

Then time to get into the morgue business?

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

Linked in just told me I matched to a "funeral director" position 

Working from home, with your dog on your lap?  Much less stressful than fighting traffic or dealing with customers face-to-face. (Depending on the dog, of course.)

Fueled by Caffeine said:

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

Linked in just told me I matched to a "funeral director" position 

hah! Take me with you ! Business will be booming

Appleseed said:

They're dead at home waiting to be discovered in a few weeks. Fear of C-19 stops you from calling an ambulance or going to the ER. Poof, there goes your heart. Expired on the couch. The cat or pomeranian gnawing on you face for nourishment.

 

This seems the most likely to me. I'm not buying the "less stress" thing, a global pandemic and crashing economy has added a lot of stress.

Also, maybe less people doing strenuous things?

The conspiracy theorists would say that the numbers aren't really down, they're just blaming every death on Covid now instead...

Huh?  Brother-in-law just had one.  Came though triple bypass surgery yesterday.

Dunno if he had coronavirus or not, but there is this:

https://khn.org/news/mysterious-heart-damage-not-just-lung-troubles-befalling-covid-19-patients/

"In addition to lung damage, many COVID-19 patients are also developing heart problems — and dying of cardiac arrest."

So I would be very skeptical of any reports asserting a reduction in heart attacks.

Probably the most likely in my opinion, people are getting a lot more sleep. I know I am.

Working from home means that instead of waking up at 7AM, I'm waking up at 7:50AM. My routine used to be getting up, showering, brushing teeth, putting gel in my hair, putting on a button up shirt and tying my shoes, grabbing my coffee, and driving to work (30 minutes), and probably a couple of other things that I don't even think about but do every day. Now my routine (ignoring taking care of the baby stuff) is to get up, brush my teeth, throw on some underwear, shorts, and a T and walk downstairs to my office.

Similarly, on the back end, instead of driving home for 30-45 minutes, decompressing, possibly changing clothes, etc., I'm at home and ready to relax already. 

I can shower during my lunch, do laundry during a conference call that I don't need to be on... Instead of my coffee breaks at work, they're "unload the dishwasher break" and "take out the trash" break. These are little things that do not take me away from work any more than my normal breaks at work (which are healthy and make you more productive anyway), and they make that much more time in my play-time at home. It adds up. 

1988RedT2 said:

Huh?  Brother-in-law just had one.  Came though triple bypass surgery yesterday.

Dunno if he had coronavirus or not, but there is this:

https://khn.org/news/mysterious-heart-damage-not-just-lung-troubles-befalling-covid-19-patients/

"In addition to lung damage, many COVID-19 patients are also developing heart problems — and dying of cardiac arrest."

So I would be very skeptical of any reports asserting a reduction in heart attacks.

Sorry to hear about your BIL, hope he is recovering. One thing that I've heard about, but not looked into, is the permanent impacts that may occur from COVID that we just don't know about. I've heard about permanent lung, heart, and brain damage. I don't think there is enough data to know what will happen with it, but it is something to be looking for. 

Most state's governors have outlawed all non-essential heart attacks. 

Duh.

I believe a heart condition is an "underlying condition", so a certain number of them will be taken by COVID and it will likely be counted as a COVID kill.

I have many thoughts on this topic and what has already been said, but I'm driving home from work.

Stay tuned.

I'm not sure how it washes out.  I mean, on the face of it, it might look like my life would be less stressful, but you have to remember that I have a toddler and my wife and I both work.  So we are both working from home at the same time as caring for a 21 month old.  

I can imagine some people with teenagers are probably pretty highly stressed right now too. Hell a few i know are gauging their days by the number of times they threaten murder.

This is totally not to say we dont love our families. But that coupled with money concerns...  stress HAS to be through the roof for a lot of people right now. 

Possibly a lot less fast food and restaurant food. 

Ambulance last hauled me to the ER Feb 16.  Discharge paperwork this time says "Acute Coronary syndrome, Acute weakness", they performed angioplasty. Previous time was this past Sept. and "Bradycardia" was on discharge papers. Prior to those I've already had heart attack, angioplasty, stents installed. No insurance, I have other medical issues besides the heart problems and no spleen to help my immune system fight pneumonia. I debated having an ambulance come get me last time in Feb., I'd seriously debate calling an ambulance at this point to bring me to a place where there's a much higher probability of catching the virus which would probably kill me anyway. So I'd probably be one of people Appleseed mentioned.

oldopelguy (Forum Supporter) said:

The conspiracy theorists would say that the numbers aren't really down, they're just blaming every death on Covid now instead...

That's not even a conspiracy theory:

Tuesday's White House press conference said:

There are other countries that if you had a pre-existing condition and let’s say the virus caused you to go to the ICU and then have a heart or kidney problem — some countries are recording that as a heart issue or a kidney issue and not a COVID-19 death.  Right now, we’re still recording it, [...] if someone dies with COVID-19, we are counting that as a COVID-19 death.

 So, there's that.

Duke said:

oldopelguy (Forum Supporter) said:

The conspiracy theorists would say that the numbers aren't really down, they're just blaming every death on Covid now instead...

That's not even a conspiracy theory:

Tuesday's White House press conference said:

There are other countries that if you had a pre-existing condition and let’s say the virus caused you to go to the ICU and then have a heart or kidney problem — some countries are recording that as a heart issue or a kidney issue and not a COVID-19 death.  Right now, we’re still recording it, [...] if someone dies with COVID-19, we are counting that as a COVID-19 death.

 So, there's that.

 

This, I think, accounts for a significant uptick in the COVID numbers as well as the reduction in deaths by other causes.

mr2s2000elise said:

Fueled by Caffeine said:

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

Linked in just told me I matched to a "funeral director" position 

hah! Take me with you ! Business will be booming

as a customer or an employee?

In reply to minivan_racer :

Huh? Just lost an old army buddy last week from a heart attack.

Just don't think it's getting as much press as it was before.

To throw this into the ring, "anyone can make statistics say anything they want..."