You're Killing Me
by Mike Jensen
JUNE 29, 2009 TAGS:
Rooting for your favorite team can cause a heart attack?
A recent study out of Los Angeles, backed by similar studies in Europe, suggests that if your Steelers or Jets or Bears have a chance to win the Super Bowl - and they blow it - you won't just be miserable. You'll be at greater medical risk of succumbing to a cardiac event.
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Of being a true diehard fan.
Some good news: Studies also indicate that winning the big one may improve your cardiovascular health.
"If the fans are really engaged, there might be alterations with cardiac events,'' said Robert Kloner, a doctor and professor of medicine at the University of Southern California and co-author of a study presented earlier this year that looked at the Super Bowl and health data in Los Angeles.
Kloner spends a lot of his time studying risk factors for heart attacks. He once found a seasonal variation, that heart attacks went up in the winter around the holiday season. His research team wondered if overindulgence was part of the reason for a spike in heart attacks.
"People are eating more, more salt intake, more alcohol,'' Kloner said. "What other times might mimic that? Ah, Super Bowl Sunday. Beer, salty foods.''
His group looked at Super Bowls from 2000 to 2004. Los Angeles was probably a good control group since the city doesn't have an NFL team right now.
"We were looking for a signal, an increase in cardio-event rates,'' Kloner said. "We didn't see one.''
So overindulge away. You probably won't die by the final whistle. Then Kloner got interested in the Super Bowl itself. Could the game - or caring so much about its outcome - cause a heart attack? Because Kloner had access to health data in Los Angeles County, he decided to go back to two Super Bowls that included a Los Angeles team, in 1980, when the Rams were still in the city, and 1984, when the Raiders were temporarily in residence.
"We had heard about other studies done in Europe -- they looked at their football, at soccer, at very intense soccer games,'' Kloner said. "The New England Journal of Medicine had published a study from Germany showing a link.''
In this country, the Super Bowl was the natural game to look at for risk factors. Those two games involving Los Angeles teams were different enough to be useful. In their game, the Rams gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns to lose, 31-19. The lead changed hands seven times, a Super Bowl record.
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The researchers found a 22 percent increase in circulatory deaths and a 17 percent increase in overall deaths in the Super Bowl-losing year compared to control years.
So much for laid-back Southern Californians who supposedly don't care about their teams.
The other game was interesting, too. In 1984, the Raiders had moved down from Oakland - and would move back north again. So there wasn't quite the emotional attachment. The game wasn't as intense, either. The Raiders blitzed Washington, 38-9. Researchers found a lower rate of heart attacks that day and in the days following the game. Overall, Los Angeles County saw a 6 percent decrease in deaths.
The result didn't surprise Kloner, either.
"There was an interesting study from France, showing that when France won the [1998] World Cup, there was actually a decrease in the cardio-event rate,'' Kloner said.
He believes his studies are statistically significant. Which begs other questions. What else do we care about enough to kill us? Politicians? Rock bands? Susan Lucci losing all those daytime Emmys?
Kloner said he is interested in looking at the current recession, how its stresses are affecting cardiac rates.
His previous studies are also useful. After Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of violating the civil rights of Rodney King in 1992 and riots broke out in the city, Kloner expected to see more heart attacks.
"There were fires and looting and craziness - we did not see an increase in cardio-event rates,'' Kloner said.
And on Sept. 11, 2001, there was no increase in heart attacks in Los Angeles either, he said. More surprising, a study by the New York Department of Public Health did not show an increase in cardiac events in New York City that day, Kloner said, but other studies do.
Rates in Los Angeles did increase dramatically, he said, when an earthquake hit, centered just outside the city, in Northridge, Calif., in 1994. Between eyewitnesses seeing people clutch their chest, an increase in recorded deaths citing heart attacks and a "significant increase'' in hospital admissions for cardiac events, Kloner said there was no question an earthquake in the immediate vicinity is at the top of the list for events causing heart attacks.
Kloner knew that from his own personal experience that same year. He was jolted awake at 4:30 a.m., eight miles from the epicenter.
"There are very few times in my own life where I thought I might die -- this was one of them,'' Kloner said, relating how his hot-water heater broke, windows smashed and his refrigerator fell over. "It sounded like a train going through the bedroom,'' he said.
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So if earthquakes rank 10 on the heart-attack risk scale, Kloner guesses that a home team losing a close Super Bowl is about a seven. He noted that figures weren't just accumulated from the day of the 1980 Super Bowl. Fans would be ticked off for days, so they looked at data for 14 days following the game.
"What we saw with the earthquake, there was a big peak right on the day,'' Kloner said. "With the Super Bowl, it seemed to be more the first week or so after the game. People might continue to be bummed out or depressed or fighting with their spouse. Something was going on after the event.''
Kloner believes such studies have their usefulness.
"If you can come up with therapies that will reduce the ability of stressors to cause the cardiac events, you may actually save lives,'' Kloner said. "Certain medicines may make sense. Some, like beta-blockers, slow the heart rate down. That might take the edge off.''
The bottom line: Root, root, root for the home team, and if they don't win? Have a defibrillator handy.
A recent study out of Los Angeles, backed by similar studies in Europe, suggests that if your Steelers or Jets or Bears have a chance to win the Super Bowl - and they blow it - you won't just be miserable. You'll be at greater medical risk of succumbing to a cardiac event.
Of being a true diehard fan.Some good news: Studies also indicate that winning the big one may improve your cardiovascular health.
"If the fans are really engaged, there might be alterations with cardiac events,'' said Robert Kloner, a doctor and professor of medicine at the University of Southern California and co-author of a study presented earlier this year that looked at the Super Bowl and health data in Los Angeles.
Kloner spends a lot of his time studying risk factors for heart attacks. He once found a seasonal variation, that heart attacks went up in the winter around the holiday season. His research team wondered if overindulgence was part of the reason for a spike in heart attacks.
"People are eating more, more salt intake, more alcohol,'' Kloner said. "What other times might mimic that? Ah, Super Bowl Sunday. Beer, salty foods.''
His group looked at Super Bowls from 2000 to 2004. Los Angeles was probably a good control group since the city doesn't have an NFL team right now.
"We were looking for a signal, an increase in cardio-event rates,'' Kloner said. "We didn't see one.''
So overindulge away. You probably won't die by the final whistle. Then Kloner got interested in the Super Bowl itself. Could the game - or caring so much about its outcome - cause a heart attack? Because Kloner had access to health data in Los Angeles County, he decided to go back to two Super Bowls that included a Los Angeles team, in 1980, when the Rams were still in the city, and 1984, when the Raiders were temporarily in residence.
"We had heard about other studies done in Europe -- they looked at their football, at soccer, at very intense soccer games,'' Kloner said. "The New England Journal of Medicine had published a study from Germany showing a link.''
In this country, the Super Bowl was the natural game to look at for risk factors. Those two games involving Los Angeles teams were different enough to be useful. In their game, the Rams gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns to lose, 31-19. The lead changed hands seven times, a Super Bowl record.
The researchers found a 22 percent increase in circulatory deaths and a 17 percent increase in overall deaths in the Super Bowl-losing year compared to control years.So much for laid-back Southern Californians who supposedly don't care about their teams.
The other game was interesting, too. In 1984, the Raiders had moved down from Oakland - and would move back north again. So there wasn't quite the emotional attachment. The game wasn't as intense, either. The Raiders blitzed Washington, 38-9. Researchers found a lower rate of heart attacks that day and in the days following the game. Overall, Los Angeles County saw a 6 percent decrease in deaths.
The result didn't surprise Kloner, either.
"There was an interesting study from France, showing that when France won the [1998] World Cup, there was actually a decrease in the cardio-event rate,'' Kloner said.
He believes his studies are statistically significant. Which begs other questions. What else do we care about enough to kill us? Politicians? Rock bands? Susan Lucci losing all those daytime Emmys?
Kloner said he is interested in looking at the current recession, how its stresses are affecting cardiac rates.
His previous studies are also useful. After Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of violating the civil rights of Rodney King in 1992 and riots broke out in the city, Kloner expected to see more heart attacks.
"There were fires and looting and craziness - we did not see an increase in cardio-event rates,'' Kloner said.
And on Sept. 11, 2001, there was no increase in heart attacks in Los Angeles either, he said. More surprising, a study by the New York Department of Public Health did not show an increase in cardiac events in New York City that day, Kloner said, but other studies do.
Rates in Los Angeles did increase dramatically, he said, when an earthquake hit, centered just outside the city, in Northridge, Calif., in 1994. Between eyewitnesses seeing people clutch their chest, an increase in recorded deaths citing heart attacks and a "significant increase'' in hospital admissions for cardiac events, Kloner said there was no question an earthquake in the immediate vicinity is at the top of the list for events causing heart attacks.
Kloner knew that from his own personal experience that same year. He was jolted awake at 4:30 a.m., eight miles from the epicenter.
"There are very few times in my own life where I thought I might die -- this was one of them,'' Kloner said, relating how his hot-water heater broke, windows smashed and his refrigerator fell over. "It sounded like a train going through the bedroom,'' he said.
So if earthquakes rank 10 on the heart-attack risk scale, Kloner guesses that a home team losing a close Super Bowl is about a seven. He noted that figures weren't just accumulated from the day of the 1980 Super Bowl. Fans would be ticked off for days, so they looked at data for 14 days following the game."What we saw with the earthquake, there was a big peak right on the day,'' Kloner said. "With the Super Bowl, it seemed to be more the first week or so after the game. People might continue to be bummed out or depressed or fighting with their spouse. Something was going on after the event.''
Kloner believes such studies have their usefulness.
"If you can come up with therapies that will reduce the ability of stressors to cause the cardiac events, you may actually save lives,'' Kloner said. "Certain medicines may make sense. Some, like beta-blockers, slow the heart rate down. That might take the edge off.''
The bottom line: Root, root, root for the home team, and if they don't win? Have a defibrillator handy.
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John DeMet wrote on July 2, 2009 2:56am
I remember being at the first Ali-Frazier fight in 1971 and the excitement was incredible from the buildup. I felt my own heart flutter at bit at the opening bell, and I was only 22. I distinctly remember reading in the paper the next day that two men suffered heart attacks while in attendance watching the fight. How they made out I don't remember, but I never forgot that the fight's excitement lead to two heart attacks. [Report Comment]
