[nukkad] Soccer Penalty Shoot-Outs Can Trigger Heart Attacks

["Nelson Fernandes" <>]

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So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law 
for the whole world. -Immanuel Kant, philosopher (1724-1804)
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Soccer Penalty Shoot-Outs Can Trigger Heart Attacks
Thu December 19, 2002 08:53 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have found medical evidence of
something every soccer fan already knows -- penalty shoot-outs are literally
heart-stoppers.
The British Medical Journal said that researchers who studied England's 1998
World Cup soccer matches found that heart attacks increased by 25 percent
when England lost to Argentina after a gripping penalty shoot-out.

"These findings support the view that heart attacks can be triggered by
emotional upset, such as watching your football team lose an important
match -- particularly those in which there is a penalty shoot-out," the
journal said in a statement.

Researchers from the University of Bristol and University of Birmingham said
that soccer fans would have experienced a fair amount of tension before and
during the England-Argentina match -- both because matches between the two
countries always produced intense rivalry and it was a shoot-out.

The researchers examined hospital admissions for heart attack, stroke,
deliberate self-harm and road traffic injuries on the day of and five days
after, England's World Cup matches, compared with admissions at the same
time in previous and following years and in the month before the tournament.

They found that the risk of admission for heart attacks increased by 25
percent on June 30 -- the day of the England-Argentina match -- and the
following two days. Admissions were higher among men than women.

But no extra admissions were noted for any of the other medical conditions.

The researchers suggested that, in the interests of public health, the
penalty shoot-out should be abandoned.


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