AFCON: Do Not Watch If You Are Hypertensive

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Are you hypertensive? Are you emotionally attached to football? Do you have an underlying illness? Beware as the Super Eagles of Nigeria, and the Cote d’Ivoire football team slug it out during the African Cup of Nations finals on Sunday.

Cardiologists have advised people with underlying heart diseases and those who are emotionally attached to football to either not get involved or avoid getting overly excited during the game and to take breaks as needed.

The advice came on the heels of the sudden deaths of four Nigerians after watching the Nigeria – South African semi-final match last Wednesday.

The experts say that such groups of people are prone to what they described as heightened emotion that can trigger a heart attack even as they attributed the spate of sudden deaths while watching a soccer match to either a heart attack or a stroke.

In their explanation, the experts noted that such individuals may have a genetic predisposition that may cause the heart to be at high risk when it goes into a sudden emotional surge.

They said such people could have also suffered a stroke because when they are excited emotionally, their blood pressure will increase.

In a chat with Sunday Vanguard, the President of the Nigerian Cardiac Society, NCS, Prof Augustine Odili, explained that there is a possibility that those who died may have had what people call a heart attack which is known to be caused by heightened emotions.

“Again, it is also important to find out how each of them died and at what point the deaths happened. Sometimes, you get some of this information from social media and so we are not quite sure but one or two of them happened during the time the Nigerian player scored a goal and the goal was cancelled, and a penalty was awarded to the South African team and they scored the penalty shootout.

“It is obvious that either of them must have had what I will call heightened emotion, acute triggers of Myocardial infarction. So, the autopsy was not conducted so one may not be surprised if they had Myocardial infarction.

“Then, those who know they have a strong emotional attachment to these events should avoid getting interested in watching football.”