Deadly heart attacks are more common on a Monday

I've read a bit into this subject before; Matthew Walker's book 'Why We Sleep'[0] discusses it at length.

A lot of it boils down to blood pressure. High blood pressure is a serious contributing factor to cardiovascular incidents (as well as a slew of other negative health risks), and getting a good night's sleep will help keep blood pressure down. This is also why the amount of heart attacks are up around 24% after daylight savings[1]; an hour less sleep means higher blood pressure means higher risk of heart attack (relative to any other 'normal' day).

I can definitely see how the same logic could apply to Mondays. Less sleep, more stress = higher blood pressure = higher risk of heart attacks.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18971502/

The important consideration here is that these people are on the cusp of death already, and this is typically just the straw that broke the camel's back. You don't get a heart attack from one bad night of sleep, of course, unless there are significant underlying conditions.

High blood pressure is often refereed to as the "silent killer". It's not like these individuals present sick/ill in their daily lives. Basically the only symptoms of high blood pressure are sudden traumatic events like Heart Attack and Stroke. If you meet one of these people hours before their heart attack you often wouldn't describe them as 'on the cusp of death'.

> If you meet one of these people hours before their heart attack you often wouldn't describe them as 'on the cusp of death'.

I disagree. It's not that the symptoms aren't there, but that they have become normalized due to obesity, smoking, etc. being commonplace. Shortness of breath, sleep apnea, feeling weak, upper body tension/pain, etc. are usually present for quite a while in most people before it finally happens. People don't check their blood pressure often enough despite it being so cheap and easy to do.

I see your point, although some of the symptoms are quite subtle. Most people with sleep apnea don't know they have it until they get tested. Same for other symptoms.

What's really normalized is metabolic syndrome. 88% of adult americans have some degree of metabolic dysfunction. High blood pressure, obesity and other ailments are very often a direct result of that. So much so, that the 'normal' range of indicators such as uric acid has been revised and adjusted over the years, because "normal" people had higher levels and still appeared to be fine. Thankfully, we are starting to question that (eg. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24867507/)

First order of business for anyone watching their blood pressure creeping up over the years (even more so if A1C, triglycerides, liver enzymes and uric acid are rising too): cut sugar in all forms. Not just the sugar you personally add to food, not only what's specified as 'added sugar', but all food containing sugar - which is basically all ultra processed foods. It does include sliced bread which is easily broken down into sugar( and is often laced with additional sugar, check ingredients). Leave your sugar 'allowance' to be used by a reasonable amount of fruits.

That may not reverse the problem (although, in my case, it did) but should help tremendously.

What makes sugar different from other carbohydrates?

Sugar is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. The user you mention advocates for a higher amount of fruit which has mostly fructose so my take on this is that he prefers his pancreas over his liver.

Eating whole fruit means you consume fiber at the same time as the sugar, so the latter is metabolized more safely.