Soccer fan Henrik Gerdin is a contented man. His team scored a late equalizer, he won a bet and his heart rate officially rose above orgasm level.
The 25-year-old Swede was part of an ongoing World Cup experiment by England's Loughborough University to test the effect that placing a bet on a game of soccer has on fans' heart rates.
"The heart rates that we have recorded throughout the first stage of the study are in line with those experienced by an individual reaching sexual climax, and in some cases greater than that," researcher Ron Maughan said.
The study will last as long as England remains in the World Cup and measures levels of stress -- or excitement -- experienced by English fans and supporters of teams playing England.
Gerdin bet ?100 (US$182) at 20-1 on Sweden drawing 2-2 with England in their Group B match. Henrik Larsson scored a 90th minute equalizer in the June 20 encounter for a full-time score of 2-2, triggering wild celebrations by Swedish fans in the Cologne stadium -- and Gerdin in the London control room.
Participants in the group stage of the World Cup had an average heart rate of 120 beats per minute. According to the American Heart Association, during orgasm a person's heart rate ranges from 90 to 145bpm, with an average peak of 115bpm. The average resting heart beats 70 times a minute.
Gerdin had the highest heart rate of the three study sessions with an average of 133bpm, and a whopping peak of some 168bpm.
The inspiration for the study was a research paper about a higher rate of heart attacks occurring days after England's loss to Argentina on penalty kicks in the 1998 World Cup.
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