The Wall Street Journal-20080131-Health Advice For Game Day- Keep Your Cool

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Health Advice For Game Day: Keep Your Cool

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New York and New England fans watch out: Sunday's Super Bowl just might be dangerous to your health.

In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, German researchers found that Bavarian soccer fans more than doubled their risk of heart attacks and cardiac trouble while watching televised matches of the 2006 World Cup soccer championships in Germany. The study attributed the higher level of emergencies to a buildup of fans' tension on game days.

The finding adds to other work that has suggested spectating is a health hazard. University of Maryland researchers who studied emergency-room visits on days of collegiate and professional sporting events warned in 2006 that male fans who needed care tended to put off their visits until the game was over. A 2002 study in the British Medical Journal found that heart attacks in England rose when that team lost to Argentina in penalty play during the 1998 World Cup. But a 2001 study found French mortality didn't increase during the 1996 European soccer championship, held in France.

As U.S. fans prepare for the Super Bowl, pitting the New England Patriots against the New York Giants, American doctors say the warning could be apt. "If it's your team, that's more stress on you," says Stephen L. Kopecky, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. For some folks, watching sports can be dangerous: blood pressure climbs and heart rates rise.

The person most at risk is "a classic couch potato," Dr. Kopecky says. He urges people not to smoke during games: It prompts the blood to clot. And drinking alcohol quickens the heart rate, he says.

"You've got a lot of people eating cheese nachos and waiting to have a big myocardial infarction," says David Jerrard, an emergency physician who led the Maryland research.

The German doctors looked at 4,279 residents of the region around Munich who suffered cardiac emergencies from June 9 to July 9, 2006, when Germany played seven games and hosted the FIFA World Cup. Incidence of heart troubles for Germans was 2.66 times as frequent on game days as on days when Germany didn't play. Men were at greater risk, suffering heart attacks or cardiac arrhythmia 3.26 times as frequently, while the rate for women was 1.82 times as great. In arriving at their numbers, the researchers made adjustments for other factors that can raise heart rates and blood pressure -- such as hot weather and air pollution.

They found a major spike in incidents during the quarterfinal, when Germany beat Argentina 1-1 after a dramatic penalty shoot-out. Germany finished the championships in third place.

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Heart-Stopping

Cardiac emergencies in Germany more than doubled on days its team

played during the 2006 World Cup soccer games.

-- Men had heart attacks or cardiac arrhythmia 3.26 times as

frequently.

-- For women, the rate of heart troubles was 1.82 times as great.