Sex is said to be safe for the heart. Few cardiac arrests occur during intercourse. But the population remains poorly trained in first aid actions.
There is little or no risk in hurting yourself by doing yourself good! The risks of cardiac arrest are infrequent during sex. This is the result of a study presented during the scientific sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA).
Unequal men and women
Cardiac arrest is a malfunction of the heart’s electrical system that causes the body to stop beating suddenly. It can be fatal.
The researchers studied 4,557 cases of cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2015, in the northwest of the United States.
Only 34 cardiac arrests occurred during intercourse, or within an hour of it. In 94% of the cases, they were men. In fact, cardiac arrest during intercourse affects one in a hundred men, and only one in a thousand women.
Either way, people with cardiac arrest previously had heart disease, and were taking treatment for it.
Training in first aid
The study also showed that the population is still poorly educated in first aid procedures. Only a third of cardiac arrests during intercourse were followed by cardiac massage. Even though there is a witness to the accident: the partner.
For the researchers, this study should alert the public to the need to train in these gestures, whatever the circumstances of the cardiac arrest. Around 800,000 people in France are trained in first aid every year.
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