ON Monday, the death of a middle-aged man simply identified as Kehinde Fadayomi, who slumped and died during an alleged sex romp with a lover at a hotel in Ikere-Ekiti hit the air waves.
Multiple sources in Ikere-Ekiti, headquarters of Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti, revealed that the deceased, a native doctor popularly known as Ejiogbe in the community had lodged in the hotel with his lover, whose identity could not be immediately ascertained.
It was alleged that the woman is a wife of a cleric in one of the fast-growing churches in the town.
According to one of the sources,“the man died in the hotel room after having sex with the woman said to be spiritually laced with thunderbolt (magun).
“The woman raised the alarm immediately the man collapsed which made the manager of the hotel and some other members of staff who were around to run to the scene.
He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where he was confirmed dead.”
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Ekiti State, ASP Sunday Abutu confirmed the death of Kehinde, adding that investigations had commenced on the circumstances surrounding his death.
Married women suspected to be promiscuous are usually laced with thunderbolt popularly known as magun in Yoruba parlance.
This is aimed at exposing and disgracing both the woman and her lover and punishing them.
Some parents, it is gathered, lace their female children with this charm to discourage them from indulging early in sexual activities.
It’s common to hear of a man who suddenly collapsed and died during sex in a hotel room.
It is also common for such cases to be attributed to thunderbolt. But in real life, sexual activity very rarely causes cardiac arrest.
Sexual activity in human relationship is beneficial because it promotes sound health among other things.
According to Dr Surajudeen Adefabi Ogunyemi, a Consultant Cardiologist at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile Ife, Osun State, there are instances when sex-related stroke and cardiac arrest are often taken to be magun (literally meaning ‘don’t climb’ in Yoruba language). Dr Ogunyemi said autopsy reports of some sex-related deaths indicate that the victims have enlarged hearts due to age-long uncontrolled high blood pressure.
Also, in some cases, autopsy reports also find massive bleeding into the brain, which is medically termed stroke.
The cardiologist explained that there is the possibility of sudden death occurring when an enlarged heart stops beating or a blood vessel bursts in the brain in someone with high blood pressure during sex due to the intensed activity.
“I have managed two or three cases where the patients developed stoke as a result of sex, and these were young couples.
“For people who have coronary heart disease, exertion can also spur a heart attack, and we have seen instances like this.
“We are trying to document and publish some of these,” Ogunyemi stated.
Ogunyemi added that COVID-19 obviously took its toll on the nation’s economy thus leaving many without a good source of livelihood.
These resorted to drugs, alcohol-based drinks and aphrodisiac herbs to enhance their sexual ability.
Aphrodisiac herbs are prepared in different forms.
There are local variants such as a mixture of local gin and herbs (Agbo gbogbonise, sepe or paraga). There are also well packaged industrially made variants in packets of pills, or tablets such as “Spanish fly, Enpulse, Vimax, Virillis, M-Energex, High T, Male X “and those in liquid forms such as Alomo bitters.
“Unfortunately, many men will resort to these mixtures of local gin and herbs, including the bitters to improve their sexual performance.
“For a man that is hypertensive, the exertion can spur severe hypertension and then a heart attack,” he said.
Dr Ogunyemi urged individuals to know their blood pressure values, adding that, “Majority of these cases are linked with blood pressure and heart problems like heart failure and arrhythmia.
“We can liken such a case with that of a person playing football, who suddenly collapsed and died. sex is similar. Sex is an extreme exertion.”
While sex-related cardiac arrest is rare, Dr Adebowale Adewunmi, a consultant Nephrologist at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos, stated that some deaths which people linked with magun or voodoo, might be sex-related cardiac attack or stroke.
According to him, “in such an instance, the heart was only looking for an excuse to fail. Already something was going on in the heart. If it was a good heart, then no problem would have arisen during sex.”
Dr Adewunmi said that to avoid sex-related cardiac arrest, men are usually advised to have a regular cardiac evaluation in situations they needed to take sex-enhancing pills to improve their libido.
“It is also for this same reason that people were asked to undergo cardiac tests like ECG and ECHO when registering at the gymnasium,” he added.
Moreover, Professor Razak Adebayo, also a consultant cardiologist, OAUTH complex, Ile Ife, said there are no studies to ascertain the number of sex-related cardiac arrests in Nigeria, although anecdotal evidence suggests that some cases of magun are actually the sex-related cardiac failure in individuals with hearts that are not healthy.
According to Professor Adebayo, when heart attacks suddenly occur during or after sex, they almost always involve older men engaging in extra marital affairs with younger women. They die having sex with younger women who are not their wives, typically in a hotel room and/or after eating and drinking heavily.
A sudden cardiac arrest occurs when an electrical impulse goes awry and the heart suddenly stops beating, halting blood flow to the brain and other vital organs. It usually causes death, if it’s not treated within minutes.
Unless it is treated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), it can be fatal. This is different from a heart attack, where blood flow to the heart is blocked.
Researchers said that despite the benefits of sexual activity outweighing the risks, more men die during sex mixing sex-enhancing pills with alcohol, using equipment to enhance sexual pleasure, through sensitivity to latex condoms and joystick/manhood captivus.
Joystick/manhood captivus is a rare occurrence during intercourse when the muscles of the vagina clamp down on the penis much firmer than usual, thus making it impossible for the man to withdraw.
A new study reassuringly reports that overall, sex is linked to only one per cent of all cases of cardiac arrest that occur in men.
Researchers analysed information from more than 4,500 people who experienced sudden cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2015 in Portland, Oregon, United States.
The 2017 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that among these cases, less than one per cent of cardiac arrests occurred during or within one hour of sexual intercourse.
Also, in the rare instances in which sex was linked with cardiac arrest, almost all of the cases -94 per cent- were in men. Moreover, among men, about one in 100 cases of cardiac arrest were linked to sex, compared with just one in 1,000 cases among women.
In the study, people who experienced a sudden cardiac arrest during sex tended to be slightly younger, around 60 years old on average, than those who had a sudden cardiac arrest at other times, who were about 65 years old on average.
But those who had a sudden cardiac arrest during sex were just as likely to have a heart condition or be on heart medication as those who had a sudden cardiac arrest at other times.
