Take That Aspirin Before The Super Bowl!

No. I’m not suggesting that a pre game aspirin will ward off a post game hangover. I’m afraid that those prone to toast every down and play will have to deal with the consequences post game.

There may be good reason to do some pre-game heart attack prevention though. It seems that the “big game”, whether that is the Super Bowl, or World Cup soccer, just happens to carry with it a higher incidence of heart attacks.

I’ve never been a particularly raucous football fan, but I’ve been to a few Super Bowl parties where I was certain that the average blood pressure was substantially over 120/80. When you see veins popping out on a fan’s neck or forehead, you know there’s some intensity and blood pressure to match.

Just a warning. If you see someone that looks like they may be driving themselves toward cardiac arrest, don’t think that pulling the plug on the TV is going to calm them down. One thing I am certain of is that the only thing that can jack up a fan’s blood pressure more than watching the game, is suddenly being denied being able to watch. Bad move.

I’ve often had people try to convince me in the hopes that I can convince a life insurance underwriter, that they don’t really have hypertension. Their blood pressure only goes up when they are under stress. Well folks, 180/110 causes damage no matter what got you there and an underwriter is certainly going to err on the side of caution not knowing how often you encounter stress, or what you perceive as stressful.

Anyway, back to the subject. Preventive cardiac treatment before the big game, especially if you have a history of heart problems.

Bottom line. Life insurance companies aren’t going to look any differently at a heart attack that happens during the big game than any other time. The underwriting remains the same. Provided you survive the game and the MI, you will likely have either bypass surgery or angioplasty. Once you are a year out from that event, and have had a follow up stress test to show that everything is working well, reasonable rates can be found.