That “Monday morning feeling” could be a
crushing pain in the chest which leaves you sweating and gasping for breath.
Recent research from Germany and Italy shows that heart attacks are more common
on Monday mornings and doctors blame the stress of returning to work after the
weekend break.
The risk of having a heart attack
on any given day should be one in seven, but a six-year study helped by
researchers at the Free University of Berlin of more than 2,600 Germans showed
that the average person had a 20 percent higher chance of having a heart attack
on a Monday than on any other day.
Working Germans are particularly
not protected against attack, with a 33 percent higher risk at the beginning of
the working week. Non-workers, by comparison, appear to be no more at risk on a
Monday than any other day.
A study of 11,000 Italians proved
8 am on a Monday morning as the most stressful time for the heart, and both
studies showed that Sunday is the least stressful day, with fewer heart attacks
in both countries.
The findings could lead to a
better understanding of what is the immediate cause of heart attacks, according
to Dr Stefan Willich of the Free University. “We know a lot about long-term risk factors
such as smoking and cholesterol（胆固醇）but we don’t know what actually causes heart attacks, so we can’t give clear
advice on how to prevent them,” he said.
Monday mornings have a double
helping of stress for the working body as it makes a rapid change from sleep to
activity, and from the relaxing weekend to the pressures of work.
“When people get up, their
blood pressure and heart rate go up and there are hormonal（内分泌）changes in their bodies,” Willich explained.
“All these things can have an unfavourable effect in
the blood system and increase the risk of a clot（血凝块）in
the arteries（动脉）which will cause a heart attack.”
“When people return to work after
a weekend off, the pace of their life changes. They have a higher workload,
more stress, more anger and more physical activity,” said Willich.
1.．Monday morning feeling, as this passage
shows, .
A. is not so serious as people
thought
B. is harmful to working people
in Germany and Italy
C. is the first killer in Germany
and Italy.
D. is created by researchers in
Germany and Italy
2.．To protect people from suffering from heart attack, doctors have
paid much attention to .
A. people’s working time
B. people’s living place
C. people’s diet and lifestyle D.
people’s nationalities
3.．It can be learned from this passage that heart attack has nothing to
do with .
A. blood pressure B.
heart rate C. hormonal changes D.
blood group
4.．If the researchers give us some advice to avoid Monday morning
feeling, what might it be?
A. Stop working on
Monday B.
Create a pleasant working environment
C. Get up late on Monday morning
D. Go to work with a doctor
5..Which of the following is
true according to the passage?
A. The risk of having heart attacks on
Monday mornings is the same as on any other day of the week to non-workers
B.33% of the Germans have heart diseases,
therefore heart attacks are more common in Germany than in any other country.
C.20%of the Italians appear to have higher
possibility of having heart attacks.
D. Non-smokers are more likely to have heart
attacks on Sundays.
ily