The Morning According to Us

Some doctors think a bad loss can be rough on the heart.

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Now at the taxidermist?

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the Pitt Panthers losing Saturday is that fans should be thankful the Pittsburgh Steelers won in February. A growing body of research shows that too many high-stakes, high-drama games cause fans of the losing team to die.

Dr. Robert Kloner, a cardiologist from L.A., presented a study in Orlando this weekend that found a 22 percent spike in deaths from heart attacks in the two weeks after the Rams lost the Super Bowl to the Steelers in 1980. Kloner thinks that stress hormones released during a loss may be enough to trigger a heart attack in fans already susceptible to one. When teams win, by contrast, endorphins flow through the body—which Kloner believes is why, in 1984, after the L.A. Raiders won the Super Bowl, the number of heart attacks in Los Angeles decreased.

Kloner's not the only scientist who believes the heart can't take a brutal loss. Last year, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that heart attacks rose across Bavaria when Germany played its World Cup matches. Men with pre-existing cardiac problems were three times more likely to die on the day of the match than an off day. Statisticians and psychology professors will tell you correlation does not always equal causation, but only time will tell how many Pitt fans make it to next season. If wins off-set devastating losses, as Kloner attests, maybe it's time for the city of Pittsburgh to do more for Ben Roethlisberger than name a burger after him.

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