The bizarre phenomenon of the Christmas death spike just got a whole lot stranger
December 25 to January 1 may be the deadliest week of the entire year, and new research makes the statistical anomaly seem even more mysterious
A bizarre, unexplained and decidedly un-festive seasonal phenomenon - the fact that you may be more likely to die of natural causes between Christmas and New Year than in any other week of the year - just got a lot stranger.
The lethal statistical spike, identified by sociologist David Phillips while combing through death certificates in the United States, has been confirmed in subsequent studies using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other large data sets. It has also been found to be applicable to various extents elsewhere.
Speculation about why this happens has ranged from in-law stress to the excesses of eating all that fruitcake and drinking all that eggnog, but the prevailing theory accepted by many doctors and researchers has always been about the weather.
The colder it is, the more vulnerable people’s bodies might be to having a complication from a heart attack, flu or other ailment that they can’t recover from.
The logic may be perfectly reasonable, but it’s likely wrong.
According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association on Thursday, the rise in deaths during the holidays doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the cold winter months.