Love Hurts

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Broken Heart syndrome is a type of heart problem. Cases have been reported worldwide, and the first reports of broken heart syndrome in the United States appeared not too long ago in 1998. Ever since, the condition has been seen an increasing amount, “A lot of these patients would come in the emergency room with chest pains and difficulty breathing. We found out that they actually were not having a heart attack, but their hearts were weak for some reason,” said Dr. Binh An P. Phan, a cardiologist at Loyola University Health System, “We found out that it was related to a very emotional experience that they were having that immediately preceded the episode.” For example, one recorded case of this was with a woman named Lisa Wysocky in July of 2009. The previous day she had learned that her son, Colby, had died of an overdose after struggling with a co-existing disorder his whole life. She spent that night on her bedroom floor in pain suspecting that she was having a heart attack. When she went to the hospital the next day, still struggling from symptoms, they told Lisa that she was suffering with stress cardiomyopathy. In the beginning, broken heart syndrome symptoms can appear to be very similar to symptoms of a heart attack. Most experts believe the cause has to do with a rush of stress hormones, such as adrenaline, to the heart during a dramatic event. In turn, the arteries that supply blood to the heart become narrow.The term “broken heart syndrome” came about after researchers noticed that many people with the condition were grieving. “These types of events can trigger your sympathetic nervous system, which is also called your “fight or flight” mechanism,” says Peter Shapiro who is a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, “Your body unleashes a flood of chemicals, including adrenaline, he says. This sudden flood can stun your heart muscle, leaving it unable to pump properly. So even though broken heart syndrome may feel like a heart attack, it’s a very different problem that needs a different type of treatment.” There is good news though, after one experiences a heart attack, there is permanent damage done to heart muscle. Some of it may lose its life when the bold is unable to flow to it. When that tissue is dead, it’s not able to be revived allowing it to work again. When dealing with broken heart syndrome, patients go to the doctor with hear muscles that look to be very weak. The muscle is not pumping blood to the same sped or power that it regularly does but the cells in the heart are still alive. But, the heart muscle usually completely recovers with the proper care over a few weeks.  Another good thing about broken heart syndrome for those effected according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year 60 percent of those who have experienced a heart attack experience a second one, while a second episode of broken heart syndrome occurs in only 10 percent of those who have been affected. What medical researchers have yet to figure out why women’s hearts tend to “break” more often than men’s.

Sources:

http://www.webmd.com/heart/features/broken-heart-syndrome-stress-cardiomyopathy
http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/death-dying/die-of-broken-heart1.htm
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28756374
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-02-22/news/ct-x-broken-heart-syndrome-20120222_1_stress-cardiomyopathy-heart-attack-heart-syndrome
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/02/14/yes-you-can-die-from-a-broken-heart/
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/broken-heart-syndrome/

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