I thought that if things got significantly more intense I might have a heart attack and die!
I was initially skeptical that this was a risk worth considering. I’ve heard anecdotes of people dying of excitement, but seemed like a “shark attack” sort of risk that’s more discussed than experienced. However, some Googling revealed “Cardiovascular Events during World Cup Soccer”, which finds that cardiac incidents were 2.66x higher on days the German team competed during the 2006 soccer world cup. FIFA’s website says an average of ~21.9 million people watched each match. This website says Germany had a population of 81,472,235 in 2006.
If we attribute 100% of the 2.66x increase to 21.9 million soccer fans being more excited on those days (as opposed to getting less sleep, drinking more alcohol, etc.), then we get (CV_risk_x * 21.9 + 59.57) / 81.47 = 2.66, so CV_risk_x = 7.18x higher risk due to extreme excitement. If we arbitrarily attribute 33% of the increase to excitement, we get (CV_risk_x * 21.9 + 59.57) / 81.47 = 1.548, and CV_risk_x = 3.04x.
That’s higher than I expected, but still not too bad, especially if your current risk is low. I think virtual reality in particular is less of a risk than many other high-excitement activities because it involves more exertion than, say, normal video games or reading. I expect the increased exertion on net more than balances out any excitement risks.
Interesting stuff, thanks for the info! Subjectively it felt like “this is one of the most intense experiences of my life, my heart is pounding” etc. etc.
I was initially skeptical that this was a risk worth considering. I’ve heard anecdotes of people dying of excitement, but seemed like a “shark attack” sort of risk that’s more discussed than experienced. However, some Googling revealed “Cardiovascular Events during World Cup Soccer”, which finds that cardiac incidents were 2.66x higher on days the German team competed during the 2006 soccer world cup. FIFA’s website says an average of ~21.9 million people watched each match. This website says Germany had a population of 81,472,235 in 2006.
If we attribute 100% of the 2.66x increase to 21.9 million soccer fans being more excited on those days (as opposed to getting less sleep, drinking more alcohol, etc.), then we get (CV_risk_x * 21.9 + 59.57) / 81.47 = 2.66, so CV_risk_x = 7.18x higher risk due to extreme excitement. If we arbitrarily attribute 33% of the increase to excitement, we get (CV_risk_x * 21.9 + 59.57) / 81.47 = 1.548, and CV_risk_x = 3.04x.
That’s higher than I expected, but still not too bad, especially if your current risk is low. I think virtual reality in particular is less of a risk than many other high-excitement activities because it involves more exertion than, say, normal video games or reading. I expect the increased exertion on net more than balances out any excitement risks.
Interesting stuff, thanks for the info! Subjectively it felt like “this is one of the most intense experiences of my life, my heart is pounding” etc. etc.