As chief implementer of the CPR Law

The celebration we have each year during the Christmas season is a period when hospitals become busy.

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

Official records have shown that emergency rooms in hospitals are the busiest places during the season, treating cases of heart attacks and strokes at its highest incidence. Doctors tell us this is precisely why they and the rest of the medical profession do not get to enjoy the Christmas holiday respite.

We kicked off this year's Christmas celebration with health promotion tips and medical advisories from leading doctors and founding fathers of the successful Filipino-owned Bell Kenz (BK) Pharma Inc. Dr. James Cayetano, director and president of BK Foundation, joined us in the pre-Christmas edition of our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday.

At the outset, Cayetano said the Philippines is known for having the longest Christmas celebration, usually capped by food and drinking "binge" feasts and parties. After all, this is the holiday season when people enjoy eating lechon, sweet desserts, soft drinks and beer, if not hard liquor and other alcoholic drinks.

Added to this is losing sleep and fatigue due to latenight partying. He described it as a "bad combination" of too much consumption of fats at Christmas-related gatherings and stress over preparations, such extra money to buy food for Noche Buena, gifts and other expenses.

"These are the Christmas risks that people face while enjoying the holiday food and drinking binges, whether rich or poor," he warned.

Called holiday heart syndrome (HHS) or temporary irregular heartbeat, this and other cardiovascular diseases can worsen the situation of people who are hypertensive. The incidence of hypertension also increases during the holidays, as blood pressure shoots up with these "multi-factorial" causes, he pointed out.