For football fans who believe that nothing beats the stadium experience, here’s scientific proof — from their heart rates. “This was a striking finding — we did not expect match days to stand out so clearly from non-match days,” Fuchs told this newspaper. Elevated heart rates in combination with alcohol are known to increase the risk of arrhythmias — irregular heart beats — and other cardiac events that might be relevant during high-stress sports events. Studies had over the past decade recorded increases in spectators’ heart rate, blood pressure and stress hormones during high-stakes football matches. Fuchs said the novelty of the new study lay in tracking sports’ fans heart rates during their everyday lives and comparing them with those on match days.
