Doctors have some lifesaving advice for hunters this season: Don’t suit up until you’ve had your check up.
At least three Michigan hunters, ages 57, 65, and 83, have turned up dead on nature trails mere days apart from severe heart attacks since the state’s deer hunting season began less than two weeks ago.
Dr William Morrone, the medical examiner for the counties where the dead hunters were found, said: ‘I’ve never seen three people die in 48 hours from heart attacks while deer hunting before.’
Hunters may not consider their hobby to be particularly taxing and thousands love it as a way to relax and commune with nature.
But exposure to cold – the average November high in this area ranges from 44 to 48 degrees – raises the risk of developing a dangerous blood clot in the leg that could break off and migrate to the lungs.
The mix of adrenaline from making the shot with exposure to cold also increases the risk of abnormal heart rhythms that can cause sudden cardiac arrest.
A strenuous hike back to the car dragging or carrying a 100-to-300-pound deer can add to an already-stressed cardiovascular system.
Heart health experts are urging hunters to get a health check-up before the season, as cold exposure, adrenaline, and strenuous activity, such as carrying a deer, can increase the risk of blood clots, abnormal heart rhythms, and sudden cardiac arrest
The official two-week deer hunting season, according to Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, kicked off on November 15.
Around 600,000 Michiganders are licensed deer hunters and look forward to November every year.
Dr Morrone suggested that for some people, personal safety and fitness may be less of a priority than winning a souvenir pair of antlers.
He said: ‘Deer season comes and bam: I have a rifle, I have a backpack and I’m trudging through the woods.’
The DNR uses hunting as a tool to control the state’s swelling deer population. Prey animals like deer can become overabundant in an area when most of their natural predators – wolves, bears, etc. – have moved away or died off due chiefly to human expansion.
With the excess number of deer comes fewer food and habitat sources for other animals, which must compete against larger forces for the same amount of resources.
Suppressing the deer population aims to keep the ecosystem in balance.
Hunting is also a tool used to limit the spread of diseases carried by animals that could affect other animals in the food chain. Deer are susceptible to chronic wasting disease (CWD), causing fatal brain damage.
There is no confirmed evidence that CWD can spread to humans. But it is related to other prion diseases that have had the potential to infect people, raising concerns about possible risks, even though the evidence for human infection with CWD is not conclusive.
Dr Morrone noted that hunters, of whom there are thousands in the state, should have to fulfill a physical fitness requirement to obtain their Michigan hunting license.
Hunting typically involves setting out in the cold early hours to trails near wooded areas, searching for hoofprints or scrapes on the ground where bucks have marked their territory.
The hunter must then find a perch, likely in the shade under tree cover, and wait in chilly stillness for hours on end until a target appears, their blood vessels constricting to preserve heat.
When a buck or doe does appear, the hunter feels a surge of adrenaline and takes the shot, causing the heart rate and blood pressure to spike.
Three hunters in Michigan, aged 57, 65, and 83, have been found dead on nature trails just days apart from fatal heart attacks since the start of the state’s deer hunting season less than two weeks ago
Dr Bradley Serwer, a Cincinatti-based cardiologist, told Fox: ‘Once a hunter hits the deer, they have to track the deer, often for a long distance over rugged terrain.’
Trudging across difficult terrain in the cold also demands more oxygen than the body would need at rest, and the body has to work harder to maintain its core temperature, increasing the risk that the heart is not getting the oxygen it needs to function.
Dr Serwer added: ‘When the deer is found, it must be transported back to a vehicle. This typically involves dragging a 100-to 200-pound animal over varied terrain.’
The combined stress on the heart can disturb the regular rhythm at which the heart beats, controlled by electrical pulses.
When those pulses are disturbed, the heart can beat too fast, too slow, or in an irregular pattern, known as an arrhythmia.
The rise in blood pressure and oxygen demand can also cause fatty deposits in the arteries to rupture, leading to clots in the coronary arteries, resulting in a heart attack.
Dr Eric Lavonas, an emergency medicine physician at Denver Health and American Heart Association volunteer, said: ‘Every year — and as we’ve already seen in headlines just this recently — some hunters experience heart attacks or strokes while in the woods.
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‘Heart attacks and strokes can happen even to people who seem in good physical shape. Listen to your body, take breaks if needed and have a plan in case of emergencies.’
He added that hunters should never go out alone and, if cell service is unavailable, use walkie-talkies to stay in touch with others in their party.
‘While hunting can be a very strenuous activity, taking a few precautions and being prepared can make a difference in the safety of the experience.’
