Watch Your Tickers, Sports Fans
An article in the Chicago Tribune links viewing high stress sporting events to an increase in the rate of heart attacks. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine notes that for Bavarian men there were 3 times as many heart attacks on days when the German National soccer team played as there were during other periods.
The doctors recorded 43 heart events per day on average during the World Cup period, compared with slightly fewer than 15 per day during normal times. The heart troubles patients experienced included full cardiac arrest, prolonged chest pain, abnormal heart beat and discharge of implantable defibrillators as a result of unusual heart rhythms.
Men suffered more game-day events than women, and people with a known history of heart disease were hit especially hard. Those high-risk patients sustained heart attacks on game days at a rate four times higher than usual.
The stress from watching your team’s epic playoff collapse, combined with the usual overindulgences in alcohol and food increases the risk even further. Buffalo fans, whose teams are prone to heartbreaking/infuriating losses, should be extra careful to try and relax. Your health may depend on it!
