Cardiac arrests rare during and after sex, study says

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Monday, November 13, 2017
Doctors: Cardiac arrests rare during sex

While doctors found men were more at risk than women, they found cardiac arrests during sex is a rarity.

According to a study by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the odds of suffering cardiac arrest during or soon after sex are very low.

Previous studies have looked at sex and heart attacks, but those are caused by a clot suddenly restricting blood flow, and people usually have time to get to a hospital and be treated, said Dr. Sumeet Chugh, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles. He and other researchers wanted to know how sex affected the odds of cardiac arrest, a different problem that's more often fatal.

They studied records on more than 4,500 cardiac arrests over 13 years in the Portland area. Only 34 were during or within an hour of having sex, and 32 of those were in men. Most already were on medicines for heart conditions, so their risk was elevated to start with.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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