Can Sex Cause Cardiac Arrest?

Is it possible for your heart to stop beating suddenly while engaging in sexual intercourse? According to a new study, there is a rare possibility of a cardiac arrest happening.

In this study, researchers had to analyse a sample of 4,500 participants who had undergone a unexpected cardiac arrest, a medical condition where the individual’s heart stops beating abruptly because of problems in the heart’s electrical activity.

After analysing these cases, the results showed that less than 1 percent of the participants had a cardiac arrest while having sex or immediately after it.

The new study is regarded as to be the first to consider sexual activity as a trigger for causing cardiac arrest with respect to the general population, according to the researchers. The results of this new study was presented in the November 12th Scientific Session of American Heart Association held in Anaheim, California.

Dr. Sumeet Chugh, senior author of this study and medical director said that unexpected cardiac arrest might be quite devastating in nature with the chance of dying being extremely high, but the chances of it occurring while having sex is quite low.

He also said that patients having heart diseases can be reassured regarding this as there is authentic data to prove it.

The linkage between sex and cardiac arrest is rare, almost 94 percent of the cases were found to be men, as per the results of the study. Among men, every 1 out of 100 cases having cardiac arrest was linked to sexual activity, which is 1 out of every 1,000 cases in women.

People who had to undergo a unexpected cardiac arrest while engaging in sexual activity were found to be slightly younger, around the age of 60 years on an average, as compared to people who have had unexpected cardiac arrest during other occasions, who were usually around the age of 65 years.

People who went through a unexpected cardiac arrest at the time of sex were equally likely to suffer a heart condition or to be consuming heart medication with respect to those individuals who experienced a cardiac arrest while in other occasions.

The study could also figure out that, in spite of the partner witnessing the cardiac arrest, only in one-third of the a bystander CPR was performed. (Bystander CPR is referred to the CPR performed by anybody witnessing the unexpected cardiac arrest till the time an ambulance shows up). Therefore, these findings were able to highlight the importance and need of educating the people about CPR and its importance during a sudden cardiac arrest experienced by any patient, as said by the researchers.

Chugh mentioned that several studies were able to show that bystanders performing CPR could greatly increase the survival chances of the person undergoing cardiac arrest. This implies that all partners must learn how to perform CPR and use that knowledge to improve the chances of survival.

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