How to watch the final of the World Cup could affect your health

The football teams from France and Croatia will face this weekend in a World Cup final that will surely boost the momentum. After all, Apple Watches recorded high heartbeat when the World Cup match between Colombia and England ended with a penalty shootout at the end, The Independent . A few days later, when Croatia played against Russia, [Fit] Verge Fitatt's technical editor, Natt Garun, recorded an increase in heart rate exceeding 100 beats per minute while watching the match.

"It was a tense game!" M "she said in a Slack message. "When he went to the penalty, I literally held my face." The last time she had seen her pulse pointing like that while sitting, she was on a roller coaster. He did not stop there: in the semi-finals when Croatia beat England in overtime to win the final, the video director Verge born in Croatia, saw his pulse climb more and more than 50 beats per minute.

It turns out that sport is an active hobby – even for those who prefer to watch them. And the result of a match can have real consequences on the welfare of the spectators. Many of these consequences are positive: rooting for a team can give people a sense of community, a reason to socialize with other people, and build the fans' self-esteem as their team wins, say the experts. But the emotional roller coaster can also take a toll. "People are often very worried about athletes," says John Ryan, a cardiologist at the University of Utah Health Care. "In fact, I worry more about the people in the stands … They are the ones who are dehydrated. They drink alcohol, they get hot, they are stressed. "

None of that is healthy, and the Apple Watch and Fitbit readings highlight the most endangered organ: hearts.We know that long-term risk factors for Heart attacks include hypertension, smoking and inactivity.But there can also be acute triggers for heart attacks, such as stress, strong emotions, natural disasters, and, show studying, watching a tense football match.

Cardiologists chronicling heart attacks among sports fans for decades and research suggests that rooting for the losing team In 1996, France eliminated the Netherlands from the European Football Championship in a nail-bit that ended with a penalty kick. there, 14 other Dutch men died of heart attacks than meadow The peak of heart attacks occurred again in 1998 after England and Argentina clashed in the quarter – finals of the World Cup. Argentina defeated England in a penalty shootout, and another 55 people were admitted to English hospitals with heart attacks than expected for an average day.

"The emotions of these intense games may have triggered cardiovascular events," says Robert Kloner, director of cardiovascular research at the Huntington Medical Research Institutes. in southern California. He wanted to know if the sport could have the same effect on the fans of American football. Indeed, when the Los Angeles Rams lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1980 Super Bowl, about 22% more people in Los Angeles County died of cardiovascular problems than usual. But when the Los Angeles Raiders beat the Washington team at the 1984 Super Bowl, Los Angeles death rates actually dropped a bit.

Of course, there is a big limit to studies like these that badyze hospital records and death certificates, says Kloner: nor the spelling of the team. Still, he has replicated the results with the Super Bowls of 2008 and 2009, and he thinks there's a link – especially for intense games, and emotionally-invested fans. "We think there is something," he says. But his research is unpopular with some fans. "I received a lot of hate mail … saying we were not American," he says. Kloner does not tell anyone to stop watching sports. But if you have heart problems, and you know you're going to annoy yourself during a tight match, you should perhaps talk to your doctor about how to look safely.

Ryan, the cardiologist at the University of Utah Health Care, points out that the relative risk of heart attacks is low – and he thinks that sport can encourage young people to be more active. Still, he has some tips for staying healthy while watching the game: stay hydrated, stay cool, do not smoke, and eat and drink alcohol in moderation. "The same advice we have for life in general is also valid while we watch sports games," he says.

But why does sport inspire emotions so strong? According to Ed Hirt, professor of social psychology at Indiana University in Bloomington, being a fan of a team or an alma mater can be an important part of the identity from someone. "So when this team plays, it's like," I'm on the field, "he says." When my team is doing well, the world is great, and I feel good, and I'm delighted. And if my team loses, it's as if the world is coming to an end. "

One can see that identity is played with the pronouns that people use when their teams are doing well, admits Jason Lanter, a professor of psychology at Kutztown University who studies the behavior of sports fans." will say "Oh, we won", he says. "Because by saying" we ", they are more closely related to the team and they get that increase from the positivity of self-esteem, "he says.But self-esteem boosts can sometimes have bizarre repercussions when teams win, and their fans celebrate by demolishing lighting poles. , overturning cars, starting fires and vandalizing their own city. (The Philadelphia police greased street lights with hydraulic fluid to prevent people from climbing them after the Eagles Super Bowl.)

Photo Alan Crowhurst / Getty Images

This phenomenon is known as festive violence, and it fascinates Lanter. "If your team just won, why are you going out and breaking things?" He says. "It should be a happy moment, not a destructive moment!" But scientists are still trying to understand it, he says. According to one of Lanter's studies, published in 2011 in the Journal of Sport Behavior hard-nosed fans who are deeply invested in their team tend to cause more chaos than good-weather fans.

And Lanter suspects that a combination of emotion and alcohol could fuel the violence. "When our emotions take over, we do not necessarily think logically, we make bad decisions," he says. "If people have consumed a good amount of alcohol, you combine that with that level of euphoria about the major team win, so the two together can lead to a bad take of decision."

The results are mixed as to whether the sports spectator is related to violence at home, but there are some studies that suggest that this could be, including one by a BBC reporter and a professor in the United Kingdom specializing in statistics. They report that after biting football games, reports of domestic violence rose about 30 percent, regardless of whether England won or lost. According to an article published by the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Significance

another study published as a chapter of a book badyzed more than 26,000 days. data on domestic violence provided by police services in 15 different cities. The team found that, overall, reports of family violence increased during the summer and during the holidays and declined during the NFL season. Still, the team found that there was a very small increase in domestic violence reports on match days. According to Walter Gantz, sports sociologist at Indiana University in Bloomington and author of the study, the team's increase Sunday was not over important than on other holidays. "Families get together, there is alcohol and if you are inside, it is more difficult to escape. I would not call a Super Bowl effect, but also a holiday effect, "he says.

To be clear, these studies suggest an badociation. They can not say definitively that watching sports was cause of these effects. And the vast majority of sports fans will not get carried away by a heart attack, knock down street lights or hurt their families after watching a game. In fact, being a fan can have really positive effects. If you're a fan of Green Bay Packers, says Lanter, wherever you go, other fans become your social support network. "You have the impression of integrating yourself as if you belonged.We know that there are good psychological and health benefits simply because we are part of a group," he says.

But what about negative emotions when your team loses? On Tuesday, nine Vox Media employees gathered around the screen where the World Cup semifinal between France and Belgium At 80 minutes, France beat Belgium 1-0, when French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris saved Belgium's shot on goal, a spectator moaned audibly twice: the shot failed, then again on the recovery.

Hirt says that pain is part of the fun. "People might say," I'm afraid of the death of this roller coaster ride but it's exhilarating … let's do it again, "he says.Gantz agrees:" Fans ensure that the excitement, the tension, the liberation, be filled, for pleasure, for pleasure. And these are very satisfying experiences. "