Triple death threat gambling, soccer, and favorites

“Triple death threat gambling, soccer, and favorites.”

~ Cynthia G. Creel

The comment took her whole attention, “He is always at the race track, every time we go, he must be there everyday.” This statement was coming from a person that spent a fair amount of time at the track himself. The only difference was that he was able to manage his personal life and his desire to gamble on the surface. Yet the one who was at the track everyday, still lives today, without much riches. The other had a very comfortable life, had a career, suffered from heart disease including 4 heart attacks with the last one taking his life. He was unwilling to fight and change once more and sealed his faith to death in his 80’s.

In both cases, both of the people I grew up with, lost a lot of there lives due to the past-time they were addicted to the feeling of winning and was pulled away from all that they loved with rationalizations.  Like all addictions there is a dark side that the person needs more and more to gain the “normal feeling” which becomes more important them life itself. The effects run a wide spectrum, hurting more than helping. If the body and mind are not able to over come the pull of the action of betting and the suspense of winning, there is nothing that can prevent the person from continuing down the same path unless something changes.

One man had limited stress and didn’t care that much about having “the world” and lives today with a large side effect of divorce, estranged adult children, some health issues and yet in his late 80’s is still able to enjoy life. He lived all of these years alive, yet blinded by an uncontrolled desire. I often wonder what he would have been like if he had not taken this path what he would have accomplished and how his first family would have been affected in the long run.

While the other a family man, maintaining a great relationship with his wife and family, earning promotion after promotion at work, yet fighting heart disease all the way and dying in his early 80’s. In his case it seems he was maintaining a higher quality of life with underlying issues that showed up through heart attacks and such. The stress over 30 years of constantly trying to correct for a problem without correcting for the main source of stress is ineffective as trying to bake a cake using the sun’s power without a solar oven. How much more could he have done if he had made different choices in his life? It is amazing the different effects from the same type of events, what happens to one person vs. another. Where that path may lead them and the full impact can take years if the correct knowledge and experience are not in place.


It wasn’t until recently all the information came to light about the two people I grew up knowing.  Now I ponder the effects of gambling, sports, and favorite teams. Not as a moral issue, for those change with society. More as the physical and emotional accumulation of negative response from the body and mind by environmental factors. It is truly on the level of a public health issue in combination with as a personal emergency. As the effects of gambling was considered  a public health risk in the study presented by Justice vic. government.   (3)

The recent headlines were in some ways shocking, with reports of hundreds of soccer games being fixed with estimates of $3 billion per day world wide gambling promoted by gambling syndicates. Half of which were on the game of soccer. The $3 billion per day tells a story in itself of the vastness of this life changing activity. If there is no change the effects will continue to be great on families and countries alike. When a person gambles they  give power to someone who only has one goal to make a profit, what they do with that profit is totally up to the organization or person. If the organizations or people had a higher purpose the idea of doing harm to someone to make a profit would never occur to them. In this case for some a devastating physical effect of a heart attack among others listed by the study done by justice vic. Government (3) .

The effects of gambling are as different as the effects of the flu on many people, it affects greatly, some are able to avoid it, while others fade away and die from it.

The negative effect of caring about any sporting game is in play with any sport depending on who is watching the sport and what effects it has on that indivdual, a study out of Germany published in the new England Journal of Medicine on Cardiovascular Events during World Cup Soccer concludes, “Viewing a stressful soccer match more than doubles the risk of an acute cardiovascular event. In view of this excess risk, particularly in men with known coronary heart disease, preventive measures are urgently needed.”  (1) The evidence of a negative effect that can be life threading for some continues to grow through the justice vic. Government study support the idea of any gambling having a negative impact with an “interesting to note that heart conditions were the most common heath condition experienced”  (3)

Including the idea that humans have a mirror effect, that if they are watching a sport it is the same effect as if they had physically taken an action of a lesser degree according to  a study done by Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist at UCLA and pioneering investigator of the mirror neuron system in humans quoted in the article featured in Great Land’s article,  This Is Your Brain on Sports. Including information about “liking the player or team and the connection is even made stronger.” (2)

Putting all of this together and odds are gambling and watching sports will have a negative effect on part of the population. How much would depend on each person. For every negative impact created on the body, from watching sports, to caring about a player or team, from a higher intensity of  caring by betting on a team and all of these factors add up to a higher risk of a heart attack.

A path of True Health counteracts the negative impact on life; how much is the only question. If you are a sports fan, love a particular team or player and gamble on a team there are two choices: do nothing and let the odds fall where they may or try the path to True Health countering part of the negative parts of life. Sometimes the healthier we get the more we care about ourselves and less important are things that may hurt us. Everyone is different and no one knows where the path may lead until you have traveled the Path of True Health and reaching the “sweet spot”. The best part of life we always have a choice to change as long as we are still alive and able to think.  (Before any changes to diet or life style it should be consulted with a professional care giver.)

By Design ~ “Life is good By Design”


2-9-2013
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of By Design or Cynthia G. Creel.

Links:

(1) http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0707427

(2) http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7179471/this-your-brain-sports

(3) http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/resources/ae5f3f5a-333f-4eab-86df-75e72c7b0c7d/8problemgamblingfromapublichealthperspective.pdf