Doctors sound alarm over massive spike in Americans suddenly dropping dead from unexplained heart attacks

Americans are dropping dead from heart attacks at home at alarming rates, doctors warn.

Researchers at Mass General Brigham, a Harvard-affiliated hospital, found that heart-related deaths gone up to 17 percent in the years following the Covid pandemic.

And while the exact number is unknown, in many of these cases heart attacks have been at home, despite deaths in hospitals decreasing.

This suggests patients are being 'missed' — until it is too late.

Dr Jason H Wasfy, study author and director of Outcomes Research at the at Massachusetts General Hospital, said: 'Lots of reports have shown that there have been fewer heart attacks in hospitals since 2020 — but something seems to be missing from that data.

'We now show that if you account for deaths at home, cardiac deaths are going up and have stayed up for years. Today there are a lot more people having cardiac deaths at home, which also raises the concern that people with heart disease haven’t been getting the care they need since the pandemic.'

The Covid virus — which is thought to have infected over 100million Americans — has been shown to cause damage to the heart and blood vessels which may be a factor.

But doctors say more factors must be at play, which are still being understood — including diet and lifestyle factors.

For example, a study this week found smoking marijuana or consuming edibles may raise the risk.

Though the full findings have not yet been released, the experts believe the pandemic could also be linked to a mystery rise in young Americans suffering heart attacks.

The study, published Friday in JAMA Network Open, looked at 127,746 death certificates from people who died in Massachusetts between January 2014 and July 2024.

The average age was 77 and about 52 percent were men.

The researchers then made population estimates based on US Census data from 2014 to 2023.

Using death certificate and census data, the team set an expected cardiac death rate for 2020 to 2023.

They found cardiac deaths were 16 percent higher than expected in 2020, 17 percent higher in 2021 and 2022 and six percent higher in 2023.

The amount of monthly cardiac deaths at home also exceeded expected levels between 2020 and 2022 and in hospitals between 2020 and 2023.

However, they cited additional data showing heart attack hospitalizations decreased by 20 to 34 percent after the start of the pandemic. This suggests many of these excess deaths occurred at home.

The researchers wrote: 'In this population-based cohort study of Massachusetts decedents, we found cardiac deaths increased substantially starting in 2020, with exaggerated seasonal patterns and increases in deaths at home.

'While numerous other studies have found fewer admissions for cardiac emergencies in countries across the world, these studies may have missed events occurring outside of hospitals.'

The researchers suggested this increase could be due to more people avoiding hospitals during the pandemic or being dismissed by doctors.

CDC research from 2020, for example, found 40 percent of Americans delayed or avoided seeking medical care at the start of the pandemic, and 12 percent stayed away from emergency rooms.

However, emerging research also shows the Covid virus itself may cause long-term heart issues, increasing the risk of cardiac deaths.

Covid has been linked to myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, inflammation of the sac-like lining surrounding the heart.

With myocarditis, it's thought that Covid causes the immune system to attack itself and cause inflammation of the myocardium, the heart's muscle.

This same mechanism has been linked to pericarditis.

While most cases are mild, in rare instances, myocarditis can damage the heart and make it difficult for it to pump blood, eventually leading to heart failure, heart attack, and stroke.

In cases as rare as one in 200,000, the mRNA in Covid vaccines may trigger a similar immune response and cause myocarditis or pericarditis.

Covid-induced inflammation also alters the heart's electrical signals, leading to irregular heartbeats called arrhythmias.

Research released this week also pointed to smoking weed or taking edibles at least three times a week as a potential cause of heart attacks.

That team found endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels and regulate blood flow, released less nitric oxide in people who regularly smoked marijuana or took edibles.

Nitric oxide helps blood vessels dilate and deliver vital oxygen throughout the body.

This impaired function affects the blood vessels' ability to dilate, increasing the risk of atherosclerosis, heart attacks, and strokes.

Dr John Hsu, senior study author of the new study and director of the Program for Clinical Economics and Policy Analysis at Mass General, said: 'Healthcare systems around the world have experienced multiple shocks since 2020. Our findings suggest that both patient choices about seeking care and outcomes after experiencing a cardiac emergency also have changed.

'Had we not examined mortality using death certificate data, the increases in population cardiac mortality could have gone unnoticed.'

There were several limitations to the study, including the lack of data on the causes leading to cardiac death. It's unclear when the full findings will be released.

The study was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health.