{"id":469925,"date":"2025-12-25T02:53:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T02:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/469925\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T02:53:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T02:53:20","slug":"holiday-stress-can-lead-to-serious-heart-health-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/469925\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday stress can lead to serious heart health issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LANSING, Mich. (WILX) &#8211; Holiday stress can be more than just exhausting; it can also lead to serious health issues. Healthcare professionals say learning how to manage holiday stress can prevent an emergency room visit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Many parents know the night before Christmas isn\u2019t always magical. Jackson resident Libby Lounds remembers the challenges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhen they were little, it was late nights putting together Barbie houses and Playmobile sets. I remember one night we were up until probably 2 o\u2019clock in the morning,\u201d said Lounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The holidays can bring joy but also financial pressure, family tension and other stress. Even seemingly minor stressors can add up and ignoring them could lead to emergency room visits. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mclaren.org\/care\/health\/mgl-cardiovascular-health-campaign-540?hgcrm_channel=mass_media&amp;hgcrm_source=other&amp;hgcrm_agency=client&amp;utm_source=print_channel&amp;utm_medium=print_channel&amp;utm_campaign=lansing_cardiovascular&amp;hgcrm_campaignid=20619&amp;hgcrm_tacticid=35847&amp;hgcrm_trackingsetid=51281\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mclaren.org\/care\/health\/mgl-cardiovascular-health-campaign-540?hgcrm_channel=mass_media&amp;hgcrm_source=other&amp;hgcrm_agency=client&amp;utm_source=print_channel&amp;utm_medium=print_channel&amp;utm_campaign=lansing_cardiovascular&amp;hgcrm_campaignid=20619&amp;hgcrm_tacticid=35847&amp;hgcrm_trackingsetid=51281\">\u201cHolidays can affect our heart health<\/a>. Especially in patients who already have a heart condition or patients who have risk factors for heart disease, like high blood pressure or high cholesterol or patients who have rhythm issues,\u201d said Dr. Ibrahim Shah, an Interventional cardiologist at McLaren Hospital. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Dr. Shah calls it \u2018holiday heart syndrome.\u2019 And says stress can cause several symptoms, such as:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list | article-list\">\n<li>Irregular heart rhythm<\/li>\n<li>Increased heart rate<\/li>\n<li>Swelling of ankles<\/li>\n<li>Chest heaviness<\/li>\n<li>Sudden shortness of breath <\/li>\n<li>Sudden or excessive fatigue<\/li>\n<li>Lightheadedness or Dizziness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">But there are ways to reduce the risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cDeep breathing exercises, meditation or prayer, just 5-10 minutes a day&#8230; Also, exercise as well&#8230; will reduce the stress hormones to the level that it would not affect our heart negatively,\u201d said Shah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rosemary Pavlik has hosted her family\u2019s holiday parties for years, until passing the torch to her son. She says planning ahead helps her avoid anxiety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cPlan it well, in advance, so you\u2019re not stressed at the last minute. And that\u2019s what I have always tried to do. And it works,\u201d said Pavlik.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">She says the holidays are not about perfection. They\u2019re about spending time with loved ones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m not having much stress because I\u2019m looking at the fun part of it, being with my family, which I love dearly,\u201d said Pavlik.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If you begin to have symptoms such as shortness of breath or chest discomfort, Dr. Shah advises you to visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mclaren.org\/care\/health\/greater-lansing-emergency-checkin-561\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mclaren.org\/care\/health\/greater-lansing-emergency-checkin-561\">emergency room<\/a> to rule out any serious conditions like a heart attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\">Subscribe to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wilx.com\/newsletter\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wilx.com\/newsletter\/\" target=\"_blank\">News 10 newsletter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@wilxtv\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@wilxtv\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube page<\/a> to receive the latest local news and weather. Looking to hire people, or grow your business through advertising? Gray Digital Media is your one-stop marketing solution. <a href=\"https:\/\/wilx.graydigitalmedia.com\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Learn<\/a> more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WILX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LANSING, Mich. (WILX) &#8211; Holiday stress can be more than just exhausting; it can also lead to serious&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":469926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[9514,14212,148171,44679,1265,9223,213498,62999,213494,210,8370,14464,213499,213493,213497,203299,7709,13819,213495,14694,728,23736,213496,517,26197,2039,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-469925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-cardiologist","9":"tag-cardiology","10":"tag-chest-pain","11":"tag-christmas","12":"tag-diet","13":"tag-doctor","14":"tag-financial-pressure","15":"tag-financial-stress","16":"tag-hannakuh","17":"tag-health","18":"tag-healthcare-professionals","19":"tag-heart-health","20":"tag-holiday-diet","21":"tag-holiday-heart-syndrome","22":"tag-holiday-mental-health","23":"tag-holiday-stress","24":"tag-holidays","25":"tag-jackson","26":"tag-kwanza","27":"tag-lansing","28":"tag-local-news","29":"tag-mclaren","30":"tag-mclaren-hospital","31":"tag-mental-health","32":"tag-stress-management","33":"tag-symptoms","34":"tag-united-states","35":"tag-unitedstates","36":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115777949121583459","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}