If you are a sport fan, you know watching sport games can make you both happy and upset.
When your favorite team wins, you are excited and may even cry; when your team loses, you feel angry and sad.
Can all these emotion ups and downs affect your heart health?
In a recent study, researchers find that both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat can have a substantial effect on the cardiovascular system.
The researchers took the pulse of fans during a hockey game.
They found that on average, their heart rate increased by 75% when watching on TV, and by a whopping 110% when watching in person.
The latter is quite strong effect, more than doubled, equivalent to the cardiac stress with vigorous exercise.
Overall, the heart rate increased by 92% (almost doubled) across all sport watchers in the study.
You may assume the most heart pounding moments of a game come right at the end, but the researchers found that peak heart rates happened most frequently during any scoring opportunity — for or against — and during overtime.
Researchers point out that this study should encourage doctors to speak to their patients about watching sports.
Previous studies have shown that heart attacks triggered by watching sporting events are more common in people with existing coronary artery disease.
These people should be warned about watching sports on CV and should be instructed to seek medical attention promptly if they don’t feel right.
The researchers said:
“Our results indicate that viewing a hockey game can likewise be the source of an intense emotional stress, as manifested by marked increases in heart rate.”
“The study raises the potential that the emotional stress-induced response of viewing a hockey game can trigger adverse cardiovascular events on a population level. Therefore, the results have important public health implications.”
“As outlined, watching an exciting hockey game might trigger a CV event in an individual at risk. The danger is particularly high in the arena and at dramatic moments such as overtime.
Their findings are published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
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