“Holiday Heart Syndrome”: When Festive Fun Makes Your Heart Say “NOPE” 💔🎅

The holidays are supposed to be magical…
Instead, they mostly involve stress-sweating in a mall parking lot and consuming cheese like it’s a competitive sport. 😅

But doctors warn there is a less jolly downside to all that seasonal chaos:
Holiday Heart Syndrome — a very real condition where your heart rhythm goes totally rogue this time of year.

Basically, your heart’s like:

“Too much wine + too much stress + too much shovelling? I’m out.”

What Causes It? 🎁➡️💓 Freak-Out

It’s triggered by things we ALL do in December:

🥂 Binge drinking (the office party was OPEN BAR, okay?)
🧂 Eating salty snacks like our life depends on pretzels
😫 Stress-shopping for teachers’ gifts on December 23rd
🏃‍♀️ Running through airports and/or malls
❄️ Shovelling enough snow to deserve Olympic recognition

All of that can crank up blood pressure and send your heart into a “chaotic holiday remix” beat called atrial fibrillation.

RELATED: Top Shovelling Tips To Help You Power Through Winter In Simcoe County

Symptoms to Watch For 🔍

🚨 Racing or irregular heartbeat
🚨 Heart pounding like it’s “trying to escape.”
🚨 Sudden exhaustion
🚨 Feeling short of breath or “done with everything."

And if you experience any of these, GO TO THE ER:

• Chest pain
• Trouble breathing
• Fainting
• Vomiting
• Confusion
• Hypothermia (aka: too much outdoor ‘festive cheer’)

The Takeaway 🎄💁‍♀️

You can:
✔ Eat the cookies
✔ Enjoy the cocktails
✔ Laugh with the people you love
…but maybe don’t do all three at once while shovelling the driveway at 6 a.m.

Your heart wants to celebrate too — it just doesn’t want to go full “Little Drummer Boy” on your ribcage. 🥁❤️