It's the Most Mortiferous Time of the Year

Be sure to savor your Christmas cookies and eggnog this year, as there's a very good chance they will be your last.

A new study has baffled researchers after revealing U.S. citizens are more likely to die on Christmas Day than any other time of the year.

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In an article in the Social Science & Medicine journal, researchers said that mortality in general increased over the holidays, and deaths in hospitals rose dramatically on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

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Researcher David Phillips, a sociology professor at the University of California, told the National Post: 'It's not trivial. We looked at all cause categories and, for nearly every one, we found an excess of deaths - particularly for people who are dying rapidly, like dead-on-arrival or dying in an emergency department.'

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He added: 'It's speculated that psychological stress can make a difference.

'But to make a difference so quickly and so precisely bang-on Christmas and [New Year's Day], for a huge range of diseases, makes it seem unlikely as a broad-scale explanation.'

Possible explanations behind the spike in deaths include overcrowding in emergency departments, winter travel, cold weather and substance abuse.

[Daily Mail]