Can watching a football match increase the risk of having a heart attack?

Watching a crucial football game can have consequences on the health of the fan. That is the conclusion of a study published in 2021 in the specialized journal Scientific Reports.

The emotional disturbance when watching football matches can, according to a study presented by scientists from the German cities of Mainz and Heidelberg.

According to the report, during the 2014 World Cup, 18,479 hospital admissions due to a heart attack were recorded in Germany, 3.7% more than in the same period in 2015 and 2.1% more than in the same period in 2013.

In the month that followed the World Cup, in which Germany emerged champion, experts from the Cardiology Center of the University of Mainz and the Department of Sports Medicine of the University of Heidelberg evaluated the data that the hospitals transmitted to the Federal Office of Statistics.

The scientists did not detect a difference in the overall death rate. However, in the weeks that the World Cup lasted, they found that on the day of the final between Germany and Argentina, which ended with a 1-0 for the Germans after extra time, the

“Watching football can touch the heart, there is no doubt about that”, commented cardiologist and pharmacologist Thomas Meinertz, a member of the advisory board of the German Heart Foundation. He clarified that, of course, this does not apply to all games, but to those that are especially stressful for the spectators, since excitement releases stress hormones and increases heart rate and blood pressure.

In the past, other studies have linked watching a soccer game and the occurrence of a heart attack.

A 2013 study found a during the seasons in which the Rio team played the four world soccer championships prior to 2010.

But a 2008 German study went further and not only used data already available, but was designed to collect it as it was produced.

The researchers analyzed, as they occurred, heart problems (heart attacks and cardiac arrhythmias) reported in Bavaria, Germany, during June 9 and July 9, 2006, when the World Cup was held in that country. The researchers during the days that the German team played.

With information from Europe Press