As a young Chilean boy, Miguel Maturana was carried by his father on his shoulders to a soccer match and joined the waves of enthusiastic cheerers at the stadium.
“I was like, ‘Dad, what’s going on?'” Maturana recalled. “He was screaming the whole game and he was so passionate about the game.”
It was clear to Maturana from an early age that many people in his home country loved the sport. However, as he grew older, he noticed another trend. There was a spectator in the stadium who was experiencing a cardiovascular event. Fans can cause chest pain, temporary increases in blood pressure, and irregular heartbeats. In rare cases, heart attack or sudden cardiac death may occur.
But what was the reason? After all, isn’t the heartbreak of sports fans figurative rather than literal? And if this is the trend in Chile, is it happening elsewhere?
Maturana, now a Memphis-based physician and chief cardiology researcher at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center School of Medicine, decided to tackle such questions. In collaboration with a team of researchers from UTHSC and Christian’s Brothers High School, he investigated his PubMed, a biomedical literature database maintained by the National Library of Medicine, to determine the link between sports, emotion, and cardiovascular outcomes. We analyzed the past 50 years of research presented.
His study, published in ScienceDirect, was titled “Are avid football or other sports fans at risk for cardiovascular events?”
Here’s what Maturana and his team discovered:
powerful emotions
Before I continue, let me say this. Don’t panic. Just because you’re passionate about your favorite team doesn’t mean you’re going to die of a heart attack the next time they play. Your favorite sport may not be among the fan sports considered to be at higher risk for cardiovascular events. Even so, there’s no reason not to continue supporting your team, celebrating the wins and mourning the losses. But more on that later.
According to Maturana’s analysis, the four sports most associated with cardiovascular events are soccer, hockey, rugby and cricket. The most commonly experienced events were temporary increases in blood pressure, arrhythmia, chest pain, heart attack, and sudden cardiac death.
These incidents tended to occur at specific times. Generally, they occur near or at the end of a match, often during semi-final or championship matches where the stakes are highest.
“That’s one of the things they found. Most of these sports-related events and emotions, and the number of emergency room visits by these patients, were closely or more strongly related to the finals of the competition. ,” Maturana explained. “During the most important part of the competition, we saw most patients end up in the emergency room.”
Meaningful. Finals and tournaments feature do-or-die scenarios that add to the tension. Memphis Grizzlies fans may remember the seven-game playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2014, which ended in four consecutive overtime games. I almost had a heart attack watching that series and I was only 18 years old.
At times like these, devoted fans can become overwhelmed with emotion, which can lead to cardiovascular events. but please wait a moment. why is that?
“Why do emotions cause cardiovascular problems?” Maturana said. “Why don’t emotions cause good things?”
Nervous?Let’s talk about your nervous system
As Maturana knows, emotions can of course lead to good things. However, this is not always the case in sports.
Everyone has a sympathetic nervous system and a parasympathetic nervous system. Think of the sympathetic nervous system as a “fight or flight” system. They are best known for their role in responding to dangerous or stressful situations. On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system tends to be activated during rest and sleep. Think of this as your “rest and digest system.”
These two systems are thought to work together to keep the body in balance. However, during an intense sports match, the sympathetic nervous system takes over completely, creating a dramatic imbalance that can cause problems.
“There’s a huge imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems,” Maturana says. “The sympathetic nervous system is activated, the parasympathetic nervous system is largely ignored, and the overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system has a huge impact on the cardiovascular system. It’s like a snowball effect.”
This imbalance doesn’t only occur when the fan’s team loses. Indeed, it may stem from anguish over a painful loss. But it could also stem from excitement over a big win.
“It’s not necessarily about the result itself, but the emotion it evokes,” Maturana says.
You might think that this type of overwhelming emotion can only be achieved when fans are in the frenzy of a stadium. necessarily. An acute imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems can even occur on your couch at home, especially if you’re a die-hard fan.
High-fat diet and high stress
However, this imbalance is only one of several factors associated with cardiovascular disease at sporting events. The other is considered environmental and primarily affects those watching the games in person. This comes down to consumption. Think about the food typically consumed during a sports match.
Stadium foods such as hot dogs, pizza, and cheese-crusted nachos are often fatty and salty, and are commonly paired with alcohol. I don’t do you any favors either.
“Dietary factors” [have an] It also causes a temporary increase in cholesterol,” Maturana said. “A temporary increase in alcohol can also increase blood pressure.”
Increases in the stress hormone cortisol are also known to be a contributing factor, and like alcohol, can raise blood pressure. Another potential problem is an imbalance between the body’s procoagulant and anticoagulant factors, which thicken and thin the blood, respectively. Procoagulant factors that thicken the blood can block blood vessels, which can cause chest pain.
It is not clear what exactly causes an imbalance between anticoagulants and procoagulants during sporting events. But it’s less than ideal, especially when combined with sympathetic nervous system stimulation, fatty foods, alcohol, and a lot of stress.
However, these factors are more likely to affect some people than others. Intended for patients with underlying medical conditions or who have had a previous cardiovascular event. Maybe you’ve had a heart attack in the past. You may have problems such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes.
“If all the patients with high risk factors go to the stadium and are exposed to high emotions, salty food, fatty food, smoking, alcohol, and their team is going to make it to the finals, they are probably at higher risk. ”’ Maturana said.
However, this does not mean that a young and perfectly healthy person will never suffer a cardiovascular event during a match.
“These are the young people we were talking about,” Maturana said. “Similar events can certainly occur in patients who are perfectly healthy and have no history of heart disease.”
‘Calm down’
At first glance, it may seem perplexing. But let’s go back. Don’t panic.
Again, the sports most associated with cardiovascular disease were soccer, hockey, rugby, and cricket. And even if you like any of these sports, it is highly unlikely that you will develop any heart problems during the competition.
“I think it’s unlikely…people should still enjoy the sport,” Maturana said. “But what I’m saying is that people who have a history of cardiac events or risk factors in the past need to be a little more careful…If they’re in the middle of a cardiac event, we’re talking about… It’s important that they know these things. They can try to relax. They can try to calm down a little and not be so affected by the score. To prevent that, these things I think it’s important to know.”
