SPANISH scientists have discovered that a heart attack could be worse in the morning than at any other time of day.
Researchers at Madrid’s Carlos III University analysed data from 811 heart attack patients treated between 2003 and 2009.
Interestingly they found that damage caused by heart attacks is likely to be worse if they occur in the morning.
The team recorded when symptoms started and looked at the levels of enzymes in the blood that are released when cells die.
“There’s a peak between six am and noon,” said Borja Ibanez.
“People who had heart attacks during this period had 20 per cent more tissue death compared with those who had attacks at any other time.”
Further research is underway to discover why this is the case.
But it is thought it might be related to the body’s natural sleep-awake cycle, with previous studies showing that people are more likely to have a heart attack around the time that they awake.
