With the third football game of the season rapidly approaching, the Penn State students are fairly certain our players will come back with another win under their belt. With a Rutgers defeat, the Scarlet Knights could be heartbroken. But they need to be careful, because dying of a broken heart is a real thing. Suffering from a broken heart can lead to short-term heart muscle failure.
Stress-induced cardiomyopathy or takotsubo cardiomyopathy (Broken Heart Syndrome) can happen in a perfectly healthy person. The broken heart is caused by a surge of stress that causes pain in the chest. Women typically experience the pain more than men. However, Broken Heart Syndrome can be confused and misdiagnosed as a heart attack because the symptoms are similar. Like a heart attack, rhythm and blood substances change. The cause of the pain and changes in rhythm comes from an enlargement of one part of the heart while the rest of the heart continues to function normally – much different from the blockage of arteries (the cause of a heart attack).
So, what should Rutgers students look for on Saturday night?
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath
The good news for our fellow Big Ten students is Broken Heart Syndrome is usually treatable. In rare cases, the syndrome can be fatal, but overall the syndrome is extremely curable as long as they see a doctor.
Sources:
“Is Broken Heart Syndrome Real?” Is Broken Heart Syndrome Real? American Heart Association, 15 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2014. <http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/Cardiomyopathy/Is-Broken-Heart-Syndrome-Real_UCM_448547_Article.jsp>.
I think this is a good topic. It’s something that you people do not really think about;however, it is something that effects all of us. I always thought it was possible to die of a broken heart from hearing of older people dying shortly after their spouses. I researched more into it and it is conformed that although it is real, it is plausable to die from a broken heart. Everyone will suffer from a broken heart at least once in their life. Whether it is because of a lost of intimate relationships or lost of friendships after grauduation from high school. I wonder is more people are more subjective to be heart broken than others or if a lost of certain person in ones life make you more heartbroken such as losing a mother vs losing your father. From my research I found out that there are 6 stages of being heart broken.
http://www.lovesickfools.com/articles/broken_heart.html
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/02/14/yes-you-can-die-from-a-broken-heart/
Kaitlin,
I just wrote my post on the same thing, maybe you would be interested in this article http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/asc/faqs.html. It is interesting to note that the people who suffer from this are ““stunned” by the adrenaline and other stress hormones but not killed as they are in heart attack” as stated in the article. I have also read in the article that you used that this can also be caused by other stressors such as the death of a loved one or even winning the lottery. It is also important to note along the lines of what Abigail said that this usually occurs in older women and it isn’t likely to occur among college students, however it could happen.
I was struggling to find anything that would explain the gender bias but I couldn’t. My only conclusion was the same as yours, just a way that female hormones react in comparison to male hormones. Or women are just getting their heart broken more!
I thought your blog was really interesting so I did some research on it. I read http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140331-can-you-die-of-a-broken-heart and found that stress-induced cardiomyopathy has been noticed in animals starting in the 20th century. When animals fear their life or jolt they get an adrenaline rush that can be compared to poison. Blood fills their veins to the point where it is harmful to them.
I read that in humans cardiomyopathy can mimic a heart attack although doctors know that it isn’t a heart attack because they can test if one has coronary heart disease.
In response to Abigail, that would make sense that mental illness could have a potential affect. However, I read here http://www.fitbrains.com/blog/women-men-brains/ that females limbic is greater in size than that of males. Thus, females are typically more empathetic which could suggest they are more likely to experience heart break. Men think with the left side of their brain, the side that focuses on logistics, they see reason in situations where women feel more emotional.
Kaitlin,
Your blog is very interesting and made me look into the subject more. After reading this Harvard Health article , I think it’s important to note that a fair amount of patients experience this syndrome after some medical illness or operation of some sort. Are women really more likely to have this syndrome, and if so, why? I check that out, and was surprised to find that yes, about “90% of reported cases are in women ages 58 to 75,” accordion to that article. I couldn’t find any place with a strong explanation of why there’s a gender bias. I wonder if it’s the way that the female hormones react versus the male hormones. Or maybe women report the symptoms more than men. I hope that researchers can figure out an explanation in the future.