Stress of rooting for the losing team increases the risk, study finds
According to a new study, the stress of cheering for a losing team can substantially increase the risk that football fans will die of a heart attack, Discovery News reports. Super Bowl fans rooting for the Packers or the Steelers at this year’s event should take deep breaths and stay calm, they note, but it’s easier said than done. “For especially avid fans, the team in a way becomes a part of their family. And when there’s a loss in the family, there’s emotional stress,” said Robert Kloner, director of research at the Heart Institute of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. Reporting in the journal Clinical Cardiology, they note that in men, circulatory deaths in men rose by 15 per cent after a loss, and in women, it rose by 27 per cent.