How can watching football affect the heart?

0

Researchers studied how the spectacle of football matches affects the health of spectators , and found both pros and cons of viewing it.

Football is a very emotional sport. The most ardent fans especially strongly experience the moments of victory or defeat of their teams. Scientists from the University of Leeds studied how watching football affects the human body, in particular the heart. Specialists analyzed the data of fans aged 20 to 62, who, on the instructions of experts, wore heart rate monitors while attending the games, and after the matches, they completed questionnaires that determined their emotional state. People's moods were one of three key health factors of interest to scientists. The other two were heart rate and blood pressure.

Positive stress.Experts have concluded that when watching football, fans experience a state of so-called positive stress – their heart rate and pulse increase as it would when performing exercises, for example, fast walking.

At the same time, for people who already have heart problems, the excitement experienced during the competition, as well as the uncontrolled acceleration of the heart rate, can be too much of a burden. Observations have shown that an increase in heart rate can only be caused by the very arrival of a person at the stadium. In addition, the heartbeat is affected by the game, and its most dramatic episodes, goals, make the heart beat even harder.

In some subjects, the heart rate while watching football was 130 beats per minute.

The danger of losing. A study of football fans revealed an interesting pattern: people feel happy emotions from the victory of their favorite team for a day, bitterness from its defeat – up to several days. According to scientists, the fans who experience the loss the most are at risk of undermining their health – “an injury to the favorite team raises blood pressure and causes a feeling of anxiety.”

Football fans should not take too closely to their hearts defeat is potentially dangerous for the psyche and heart. According to the German Heart Foundation, the excitement of watching football causes the body to release stress hormones, which causes the heart to beat faster and blood pressure to rise. In people with chronic heart diseases, under such circumstances, the risk of impaired blood circulation in the heart or the development of a heart attack increases.