Dangerous Sports

People across the world have been watching the Olympics this month, and many will be encouraged to do more sport. But no activity is completely risk-free, as this 10 year retrospective study of sports-related deaths points out. It notes that:

• Sudden death most often happens in people with left ventricular hypertrophy from underlying coronary heart disease
• Traumatic deaths from drowning or blunt trauma most often happen on holiday in unfamiliar surroundings
• Medical screening for everyone before participation in sports won't prevent many of the unexpected death
• The cause is often not apparent until a postmortem is carried out

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Source: British Journal of Sports Medicine 2008;42:604-608