Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 11, 1993 TAG: 9311110031
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Short
In a study of men and women recovering from heart attacks, Dr. James Muller found that 1 percent of the attacks were triggered by sexual activity. In comparison, 10 percent were triggered by awakening.
The Harvard Medical School researcher isn't advising people to give up sex and stay in bed. "These data shouldn't be used to scare people, to say that sex is a dangerous activity," Muller said.
The findings underscore the importance of research into other heart-attack triggers, such as cigarettes and stress, he said.
Muller said the findings show that the risk of sex to the heart "is extremely low."
A healthy 50-year-old man faces a 1-in-1-million risk of a heart attack. After sex, he faces a 2-in-1-million risk, Muller said.
Dr. Thomas Pearson of the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, N.Y., said the research complements studies showing that heart attacks may be caused not by total blockage of coronary arteries but by disruption of a partial blockage. That can lead to clot formation and a heart attack.
A study by Dr. Prakash Deedwania of the University of California, San Francisco, showed that brief interruptions of blood flow to parts of the heart were more common in the morning, a possible explanation of why heart attacks are more likely then.
Further, Deedwania and colleagues at 34 medical centers showed that heart drugs called beta blockers could prevent those morning blood-flow disruptions.
by CNB