Dying of a Broken Heart
I know that I've told many of you, over and over again, that you have to be strong following a break-up-- after all, no one has ever died of a broken heart.
Some of you believed this advice, owing, perhaps, to the logic and to the self-evidence of the statement. But I guess there is a reason why lawyers were never meant to dispense medical diagnoses, because apparently, one can die of a broken heart. And the disease has been fittingly called “broken heart syndrome.”
The affliction appears to have been first diagnosed in Japan in 1991, after a woman complained of what doctors first believed to be a heart attack. When examined more closely, the woman’s ECG was found to be uncharacteristic of a true cardiac episode, and the cardiac enzyme test that was supposed to confirm a heart attack was not found to be elevated. It was also discovered that the apex of the woman’s left ventricle had “ballooned” outward in an unusual fashion. The Japanese cardiologists thought that it resembled a Japanese octopus trap (a tako tsubo), hence called the condition takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
Studies later on showed that the syndrome was more prevalent across the globe than first believed. The studies confirmed that profound psychological stress such as grief, fear, anger, and shock could cause the acute but reversible dysfunction that occurred in the hearts of older, postmenopausal women. Patients (mostly women) suffering from the affliction were found to initially suffer from severe heart failure, and required aggressive and intensive medical care. The good news was that with appropriate care, not only did most patients survive, but that their hearts usually returned to normal functions within a few days or weeks. While the exact cause of the syndrome is not known, it is generally thought that the “ballooning” of the heart is a usual response to stress hormones produced following a severely stressful or emotional trauma.
Those of us, therefore, who have just lived through a broken heart should remember to not only be wary of medical advice dispensed by (know-it-all) lawyers, but more importantly, to be vigilant on the onslaught of a possible and quite serious medical affliction. The soundest medical suggestion, of course, is to avoid heart ache where it is even at all possible-- after all, an ounce of prevention with worth a pound of cure. But with life and living the way it is, I suppose that heart ache is inevitable, and when immanent or already present, the next best thing to do is to not only help ourselves (by perhaps keeping things in perspective), but to be kind to ourselves, as well. Indeed, if any thing, broken heart syndrome is a reminder that emotional stress and trauma can and will result in real and sometimes debilitating physical pain.
Some of you believed this advice, owing, perhaps, to the logic and to the self-evidence of the statement. But I guess there is a reason why lawyers were never meant to dispense medical diagnoses, because apparently, one can die of a broken heart. And the disease has been fittingly called “broken heart syndrome.”
The affliction appears to have been first diagnosed in Japan in 1991, after a woman complained of what doctors first believed to be a heart attack. When examined more closely, the woman’s ECG was found to be uncharacteristic of a true cardiac episode, and the cardiac enzyme test that was supposed to confirm a heart attack was not found to be elevated. It was also discovered that the apex of the woman’s left ventricle had “ballooned” outward in an unusual fashion. The Japanese cardiologists thought that it resembled a Japanese octopus trap (a tako tsubo), hence called the condition takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
Studies later on showed that the syndrome was more prevalent across the globe than first believed. The studies confirmed that profound psychological stress such as grief, fear, anger, and shock could cause the acute but reversible dysfunction that occurred in the hearts of older, postmenopausal women. Patients (mostly women) suffering from the affliction were found to initially suffer from severe heart failure, and required aggressive and intensive medical care. The good news was that with appropriate care, not only did most patients survive, but that their hearts usually returned to normal functions within a few days or weeks. While the exact cause of the syndrome is not known, it is generally thought that the “ballooning” of the heart is a usual response to stress hormones produced following a severely stressful or emotional trauma.
Those of us, therefore, who have just lived through a broken heart should remember to not only be wary of medical advice dispensed by (know-it-all) lawyers, but more importantly, to be vigilant on the onslaught of a possible and quite serious medical affliction. The soundest medical suggestion, of course, is to avoid heart ache where it is even at all possible-- after all, an ounce of prevention with worth a pound of cure. But with life and living the way it is, I suppose that heart ache is inevitable, and when immanent or already present, the next best thing to do is to not only help ourselves (by perhaps keeping things in perspective), but to be kind to ourselves, as well. Indeed, if any thing, broken heart syndrome is a reminder that emotional stress and trauma can and will result in real and sometimes debilitating physical pain.
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