British medical experts say stress may be to blame for a worrying rise in heart attacks among people under 40.
Britain has been in the throes of “the worst heart care crisis in living memory” which has people dying from early heart and circulatory diseases at the highest rate in over a decade.
Authorities at the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) are flummoxed as to why premature deaths from cardiac events among Brits under 75 — which had been declining for almost sixty years — have been increasing since 2020 in a clear trend reversal.
According to an analysis by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), premature cardiovascular deaths in 2022 reached 80 out of 100,000, the highest rate since 2011. Figures from 2022 show that 39,000 people — around 750 per week — died from heart attacks, strokes, or coronary heart disease.
But doctors are now being inundated with a spate of under-40 heart attack victims.
“Between 10 to 20 percent of my heart attack patients are now under the age of 40,” said Dr Martin Lowe, who serves as a consultant cardiologist at London’s St Bartholomew’s Hospital and The Portland Hospital. “In the US, data shows around one in five heart attack patients is under 40 and we’re catching up in the UK. When I was a junior doctor it was extremely rare to see young people — most patients were smokers in their 50s and 60s.”
Another consultant cardiologist who works at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital also expressed alarm.
“We have really noticed the trend for younger people from mid-20s upwards having heart attacks in the past five years in particular,” said Dr. Joe Mills. “Now as a cardiologist, you wouldn’t even raise your eyebrows when seeing someone in their late 30s — it’s becoming fairly typical, which is frightening.”
Dr. Lowe suggested several possible causes, including smoking, alcohol, obesity, diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, and sleep apnoea. But perhaps the main culprit, he said, is stress.
“Generally we all live with stress, but it can trigger a heart attack or change in heart rhythm in some people and not others. I’ve seen a huge increase in heart rhythm problems due to stress,” he said.
Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital consultant cardiologist Professor Thomas Lüscher agreed, saying stress activates a person’s fight or flight response, which can trigger blood clots in the heart artery and may lead to a heart attack.
But these experts have not addressed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study in 2022 that discovered a 25% rise in cardiac events in people under 40 that was directly correlated to the COVID vaccines. In its own study, the State of Florida found an 84% increase in the relative risk of cardiac-related death among men 18 to 39 years old within 28 days of an mRNA shot.
