Community Chat

[Drythe]

Some who love the holidays, or want to spend one more with their families make a huge effort to meet the date.

Additionally, cold weather, and groups of people in an enclosed, heated space, and school schedules of < 18 year olds bringing them together in close space,  all increase communicable disease transmission during this time period.

Older, immunosuppressed, or otherwise weakened people have difficulty throwing off these illnesses which can cause death, or exacerbate other existing illness such as heart failure, or respiratory issues.

** Edited ding dang auto correct

[Elom]

When I was a merchandiser for American Greetings they always stressed that the stock for sympathy cards is filled in the winter ease up in the summer.

[SilleeMee]

The last part of the year is filled with stress, loneliness and depression....makes the body and mind weak.

Cold weather means closed environments where people catch stuff, get sick and sometimes die.

[on the bay]

@Summer Shine -

That is an interesting observation and I bet along with all the other reasons stated, that may very well be a contributing factor!

[RedTop]

I totally agree with the arrival of flu and viral season having a great effect on the elderly.

I also believe our elderly relatives get caught up in memories of long ago, and become so peaceful, they just let go and forget to breathe, with happy thoughts on their minds.   We believe this is what happened to my grandmother.    

My dad passed from a staph infection after cancer surgery.   However, he had a gut feeling his cancer was back, before Thanksgiving, but never said a word to anyone.   We had Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years as usual, which is what he wanted.   On January 2nd he told my mom she needed to take him to the ER, as his colon cancer was back.   As they left the house, my dad looked everything over, as he felt he wasn’t coming back home, and he didn’t.   

[SilleeMee]

---

@on the bay wrote:

@Summer Shine -

That is an interesting observation and I bet along with all the other reasons stated, that may bery well be a contributing factor!

---

When my vitamin D level was first discovered to be extremely low, I was in a state of depression and I was sick all of the time.

[september]

In my family, the flu or other respiratory infections have often played a role    

[ann1989]

@RedTopthat is terribly sad, so sorry for your loss.

[qvcaddition]

I read Christmas eve and Christmas is the most time.  I had a husband die on Christmas day and a friends husband die the week before.

[x Hedge]

---

@suzyQ3 wrote:

According to the Washington Post:

The deadliest day of the year is almost upon us. April may be the cruelest month, per Chaucer Eliot*, but it isn't the deadliest. That honor goes to January. The seasonality of death — more deaths in the winter, fewer in the summer — is a well-established and long-running public health mystery.

---

If that is consistently true for us, then I'd like to know if those numbers reverse in the southern hemisphere.

If yes, loss of comfortable temps and dwindling daylight hours may play a role.

I know here, November is the most sunless, overcast, "gloomy" looking month and is hard on those with Seasonal Affective Disorder. I was taught more patients expire during night shift, too.  So there are rhythms of more deaths in the darkest part of the 24 hour clock as well as in the seasons with less light.