Posts Tagged ‘ heart ’

October 12.11-Watching Sports May Be Bad for Your Heart

By Jo Cavallo

One study showed the risk for cardiac arrest soared to two to four times higher while watching heart-pounding sports events. But does it matter if your team wins or loses?

Can the excitement of watching heart-pounding sports matches be bad for your heart? According to research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the answer is yes.

A group of German researchers compared cardiac events in Munich during the five weeks of the 2006 World Cup, held in Germany, to the number of cardiac events during other times of the year and found that on the days the German team played, cardiac emergencies more than tripled for men and nearly doubled for women. The greatest risk was for those fans who already suffered from heart disease, with their chance of having a heart attack or other cardiac problem soaring to four times higher during the games. The risk was double for those fans who didn’t have a history of heart problems.

“Apparently, of prime importance for triggering a stress-induced event is not the outcome of a game-a win or loss-but rather the intense strain and excitement experienced during the viewing of a dramatic match, such as one with a penalty shootout,” wrote the study authors.

The researchers suggested that doctors take into consideration the effect watching sporting events may have on their heart disease patients and consider increasing a patient’s medication dose to compensate for the additional stress.

 

Staying Heart Healthy

According to the American Heart Association (AMA), heart disease is the number-one cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. If you’re concerned about how watching adrenaline-inducing sporting matches may affect the health of your heart, talk with your doctor about how you can stay heart healthy both during exciting sporting events and all yearlong. These tips can help:

  • Reduce stress. Chronic stress can cause your blood pressure and heart rate to rise, increasing your risk for heart disease. Maintaining a regular exercise program that includes at least 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity most days of the week and trying other stress-busting methods like yoga and meditation can help reduce stress levels.
  • Quit smoking. Smoking is one of the biggest risk factors for developing heart disease. Quitting smoking dramatically reduces your risk for developing heart disease within just one year.
  • Get enough sleep. Aim for six to eight hours of sleep each night.
  • Give yourself a pep talk. Positive self-talk is a good way to deal with stress, but negative self-talk can have the opposite effect, increasing stress levels, according to the AMA. To help you feel better, practice positive self-talk every day. For example, “I’ll do the best I can,” rather than “I can’t do this.”

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August 24.11-Aspirin Heart Warning

Aspirin heart warning


Aspirin is associated with side effects

Taking aspirin to ward off heart disease could be harmful for people at low risk, say researchers.

They analyzed the pooled results of four major international clinical trials covering 48,000 people, of which more than half were treated with aspirin.

Aspirin is well known to reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke in those who have already suffered these problems.

The results showed that the painkiller cut the risk of first heart attacks by almost a third.

But it also increased the risk of bleeding complications by almost 70%.

The researchers, led by Professor Larry Ramsay, of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, concluded that it was important to identify how likely a person is to have a heart attack before deciding whether they should take aspirin.

Aspirin is one of the wonder drugs of the 20th century, and is of great benefit for many heart patients
British Heart Foundation

If the risk of a heart attack is calculated as being moderately high – a 15% chance over 10 years – then they say that taking 75mg of aspirin once a day is a good idea.

Except in people with ulcers or high blood pressure that is not being treated, the chance of preventing a heart attack far outweighs any possible harm.

And in people at moderate risk – between 5% and 15% – the benefits and disadvantages cancel each other out, so taking aspirin is probably worthwhile.

However, they conclude that people whose chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years is less than 5% should not take aspirin.

For these people the side effects – such as bleeding from the stomach – are likely to outweigh any benefit.

Risk difficult to calculate

The difficulty is that people do not often know their true level of heart disease risk – and may simply decide to treat themselves.

This risk can only be calculated using a set of specially devised tables, taking into account all the possible risk factors, such as smoking, family history, and cholesterol levels.

Professor Ramsay told BBC News Online: “I would advise anybody who is worried that they might be at risk to go to their doctor or practice nurse for formal estimation 

of heart attack risk.”

 

A spokesperson for the British Heart Foundation said: “Aspirin is one of the wonder drugs of the 20th century, and is of great benefit for many heart patients.

 

“Previous BHF research also indicated that taking aspirin long term slightly raises the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.

 

“This risk is far outweighed by the benefits of this cheap and effective drug for heart patients and others at high risk.

 

“Aspirin lowers the risk of having a heart attack, but is not recommended as a preventative measure for people who have a low risk of getting heart disease.

 

“Instead these people should concentrate on not smoking, doing regular physical activity – 30 minutes on five days a week – and eating a high fruit and vegetable, low fat diet.”

 

The research is published in the journal Heart.

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