Football boosts chances of heart attack, warn top medics ahead of Euro campaign

HOSPITALS are braced for an influx of patients this weekend – after a study found watching football increases the risk of having a heart attack.

England kick off their Euro 2016 campaign today, when they play Russia in France. Wales also start their campaign this afternoon, with Ireland getting underway on Monday.

But hospitals back home are expecting an increase in A&E admissions, brought on by the “acute stress” of the game.

Health authorities have previously linked the stress caused by earthquakes or the World Cup with increased heart attacks and other adverse cardiac events.

And now research by King’s College London and St Thomas’s Hospital, central London, has identified why.

Scientists looked at 15 people with significant coronary heart disease – the narrowing of arteries that carry oxygen-rich blood to the heart – and 11 people without significant CHD.

The volunteers underwent tests to trigger mental stress whilst the blood pressure and speed of blood flow inside the coronary arteries were measured.

Researchers saw an increase in heart rate and blood pressure during mental stress testing, reflecting an increase in oxygen demand by the heart muscle.

But in people with CHD – representing 2.3million people in the UK – blood flow in the coronary arteries did not increase to meet that demand.