HEALTH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa has warned that binge eating and excessive drinking during the Christmas season could lead to the “holiday heart syndrome.”
Herbosa said in a briefing on Saturday the holiday heart syndrome is characterized by irregular heartbeat and palpitation, the early signs of a possible heart problem.
He cited a 2021 study in Norway presented to him by officials of the Philippine Heart Center, which showed that the three days after Christmas Day would be the “deadliest time of the year” for cardiovascular-related diseases.
“The Philippines is not very far behind… What we are seeing is that there are so many people getting heart attacks and strokes after the holidays, and we can prevent all of that,” Herbosa said.
“There is arrhythmia due to dehydration and high salt and fat content, which complicates the heart and leads to atrial fibrillation, causing death,” he said.
He said the holiday heart syndrome and other possible cardiopulmonary diseases could be prevented through regular exercise.
Herbosa also raised concerns over increasing cases of minors drinking alcohol and called on the Philippine National Police (PNP) to strictly enforce the law that prevents minors from buying alcoholic drinks.
“We make sure that we have a campaign and implement the law; there is a law that prevents the selling of alcohol even in bars… And my idea of this is to prevent kids from being alcoholic because it is substance abuse, and we can prevent them from getting injuries,” he said.
Despite their focus on noncommunicable diseases for this year, Herbosa stressed that they were still focusing on firecracker prevention, with an increased focus on preventing firecracker injuries on children.
He also said he was not certain if firecracker injury cases would be higher or lower than the 609 cases reported from Dec. 21, 2023 to Jan. 5, 2024.
“I would wish it would be few, but last year was the first Christmas that we became fully open after Covid, so that’s why during the Covid years, there were no firecrackers, that’s why I am ambivalent [about cases]. We have to be careful about that,” Herbosa said.
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