In addition to any monetary winnings one might enjoy, there’s another reason to root for the winning team in this Sunday’s Superbowl. Time magazine reports that researchers studying Los Angeles county residents before and after the L.A. teams’ two Super Bowl appearances found that a win correlated with a decrease in heart-related deaths while a loss was linked to a spike in cardiac deaths in the weeks following the game. The magazine reports that following the L.A. Rams’ 1980 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, there were 15 percent more heart-related deaths among L.A. County men and 27 percent more among women, compared with years when the team wasn’t in the Super Bowl. Conversely, after the L.A. Raiders’ 1984 win against the Washington Redskins, there was a dip in cardiac deaths on average, compared with non-Super Bowl years.
Elsewhere, the New York Times reports on a number of studies showing that big games are linked to spikes in heart attacks and other cardiovascular events. A study in The New England Journal of Medicine followed thousands of German fans during the 2006 World Cup, finding that cardiac emergencies surged on days the German team played, especially after dramatic games.