Winter sports tourists at higher risk of heart attack (Austria)

"Skiers and other winter sports tourists who visit the Alps are at increased risk for heart attack due to low temperatures, high altitude and inadequate conditioning for intense physical exertion, finds a new study. The risk is greatest during the first two days of vacation, said a research team of cardiologists at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, who focused on winter tourists in the Tyrolean Alps. "Every year, millions of tourists visit the Tyrolean Alps to participate in a variety of winter sports, each of which carries a certain risk of accident and injury," study senior author Dr. Bernhard Metzler, an associate professor of cardiology at the university, said in a news release from the European Society of Cardiology"

Watching your team lose can give you a heart attack

Watching your team lose can be more than heart breaking, it can be fatal, especially for die-hard fans, warns a new study. "The emotional stress of loss and/or the intensity of a game played in a high profile rivalry such as the Super Bowl can trigger total and cardiovascular deaths," ABC Online quoted Dr Robert Kloner, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California, as saying. "In contrast, a win in a lower intensity game may actually have a favourable effect on mortality," he added. According to Kloner, fans who get excited during sporting events and have risk factors for heart disease should consult their doctor before a big game. Drugs such as beta-blockers, aspirin or anti-anxiety drugs could help them, as could relaxation exercises, such as deep breathing, he says. "I'm not suggesting that people not watch the Super Bowl. People should be aware of this and I suspect it applies to other sports as well," he added. - Zeenews

Rabid sports fans tend to be less healthy

"Listen up sports fans: Being passionate about sports - watching it, that is - can be detrimental to your health. That's the word from a sports medicine research team who conducted a study linking sports fanaticism with poorer health habits. University of Arkansas, Little Rock, researchers surveyed 515 people and divided the participants into two groups: those who strongly identified with sports and those who did not. They found the avid sports fans tend to eat more fast food, skip breakfast more and ate more fatty foods and fewer vegetables than people who are disinterested in sports" - LA Times

Cool invention helps tired players bounce back

"Players for the San Francisco 49ers trotted off the field during Sunday's game against the Detroit Lions and grabbed for the requisite towels and Gatorade. A few went for something else on the bench, slipping their hands into a coffee-pot-like contraption that stops cramping and overheating. The device, called the Glove and invented by two Stanford biologists, is used by the Niners during games and at practice for players' health. But its applications are far broader: from treating stroke and heart attack victims to allowing soldiers to remain in the field longer under intense heat" - SFGate

Stanford athletes undergo extensive heart screening

"Stanford searches the world to recruit athletes with heart. On Sunday, it made sure those hearts were healthy. Hundreds of student-athletes underwent extensive heart checks in the school's most ambitious effort yet to prevent sudden cardiac death, the leading killer of young American athletes. Young, strong and fit, athletes from 35 teams seemed to be the picture of health as they awaited electrocardiograms (ECG) and echocardiograms at the Sports Medicine Center of the Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation. But heart ailments can be silent killers, said Stanford's Dr. Victor Froelicher, lead cardiologist for the Sunday screening. 'There are 200 sudden cardiovascular deaths a year in young athletes. We would like to see that it doesn't happen here,' he said. 'It is such a paradox, that the kid who is the best physical specimen can die suddenly' - San Jose Mercury News