During the 1998 World Cup soccer finals, significantly fewer French men died from heart attacks than in the days before or after the final game, according to a study published in the April issue of the British journal Heart. France defeated Brazil to win the World Cup that year.

Study author Dr. Frederic Berthier, from the Department of Public Health and Medical Information in Nice, France, says the researchers aren't sure why the World Cup would affect the death rate from heart attacks. They suspect it may be because of the euphoria created by the win, and because people had a day off from work.

Berthier says there are typically lower rates of deaths from heart attacks on Sundays, and this game took place on a Sunday.

For the study, Berthier and his colleagues looked at mortality statistics from all over France for June through July 1997 and 1998. The researchers compared the death rates on the day of the World Cup final to five days before the match and five days after, as well as for the same time period in the preceding year.

About 40 percent of the French population -- 23.6 million -- watched the World Cup finals on July 12, 1998. According to the authors of the study, it was the biggest sporting event ever held in France.

On the day of the World Cup final, 23 men died from heart attacks, compared to an average of 33 per day during the five days before and after the event. Only 18 women died from heart attacks on the day of the World Cup final, compared to an average of 28 than in the days before and after the final match.

There was no statistically significant drop in the death rate from heart attacks on that day in the previous year.

"This is the first study to show a reduction in heart attack mortality after winning," says Dr. Robert Kloner, director of research at The Heart Institute of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. Kloner wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

"Most of the previous studies have suggested that during tense soccer and sporting events, especially with do-or-die situations like overtime, there was an increase in acute [heart] events," Kloner says.

In his editorial, Kloner points out there was a 25 percent increase in hospital admissions for heart attacks in England when they lost to Argentina in a penalty shoot-out.

If your team is the winning team, Kloner says it may cause relaxation and a decrease in stress levels, which may be why there are fewer heart attack deaths.

"All of this points to the fact that there is a brain-heart connection," he says.

So, if you have heart disease and you get overly excited while you're watching sports, you may want to talk to your doctor about it. Kloner says if watching your favorite team brings on any kind of chest pain that you should definitely talk with your doctor.

More information

For tips on recognizing and preventing heart attacks, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians or the American College of Emergency Physicians.