Can you actually die from a broken heart?

Quiet passage away from the pure heart is a Trop that appears in myth and fantasy. IN Stars wars The universe, Padmé Amidala may have died from a broken heart after her husband returned to the dark side, becoming Darth Vader and she gave birth to Luke and Leia. Shakespeare’s king Lear is subjected to a heart attack after hearing the destruction of his precious cordel.

The drama aside, it is possible that these characters fell in Takotsubo syndrome – a short, intense malfunction in the left ventricle. It can occur after extreme emotional or physical stress, making the “heart stroke” both real and potentially deadly.

While the death of heart attack has been a well -known topic in fabrication for a long time, the clinics began documenting true cases in the 1960s, says Trisha Singh, a cardiologist at Hospital Dorset University in England. “It was typically described as an elderly man or a middle -aged woman who just lost a loved one, and one day or after, she died of heart stroke.”

As the image technology improved, doctors can directly study the hearts of affected patients. In many people, the left ventricle – the room that pumps oxygenated blood into the body – balloons outside. The form reminded Japanese clinics for a takotsubo, a round jar for catching lobster and octopus. In 1990, cardiologist Hikaru Sato and colleagues at Hiroshima City Hospital proposed Takotsubo to describe the situation.

What it causes is still something of a mystery. A hypothesis is that an acute traumatic event causes an increase in stress hormones such as norepinephrine in the brain and epinephrine in the adrenal glands. Because the left ventricle is particularly rich in receptors for these chemicals, a sudden flood can cause the auto elastic muscles to become loose and swollen, making it unable to give enough blood in body. Another hypothesis is that a response to stress “stun” the heart temporarily. In most cases observed in women after menopause, it is also possible for the reduced estrogen to play a role.

Takotsubo syndrome is relatively rare, which accounts for only about 2 percent of people seeking medical care for a noticeable heart attack. Cardiologist Peter Rahko from the University of Wisconsin – Madison recalls a case from the 80s. An elderly woman was called to a hospital in rural Wisconsin and showed her son’s body, who had died in a car accident. “Within five minutes, she began to have severe chest pain [and] It crashed to the floor, ”Rahko says.

The woman was sent to Madison, where Rahko grabbed a catheter in her heart to see if a blockage was causing a heart attack. To his surprise, “its arteries were perfectly normal, but its heart function was dramatically reduced.” In takotsubo syndrome, heart vessels are often clear. In fact, most patients do not have classic risk factors for heart problems.

In retrospect, Rahko now realizes that his patient had takotsubo syndrome. Today, the reduced heart function without clear signs of the disease is a tip-off. A doctor will seek acute stress, such as the last drop. In some cases, the tragic event is visible. But even events with a long-term effect like the Covid-19 Pandemia or Earthquakes in New Zealand have been documented as receipt points. Many patients, notice single, have mental illnesses such as anxiety or depression.

Although heavy, takotsubo is extremely short -lived and usually not fatal. About 4 percent of patients die, while about 75 percent recover completely after 10 days, as the Rahko patient did. Many recover after only 48 to 72 hours. “Absolutely absolutely extraordinary,” says Singh. “I remember seeing a lady who would go inside, and her left ventricular function was severely damaged, and I returned and rescued her six hours later, and she had gone from severe damage to almost damaged easily at almost normal. ”

Standard care is the patient’s treatment for heart failure. “But now, lately, especially with some people to recover so quickly, it raises a question,” Rhako says. “Do we even have to worry by trying to put people in these medicines? Will they do some good too? “It is possible that with the basic medical support for the patient, the heart may not ruin itself.

Knowing that Takotsubo syndrome happens today, Rahko says, would not surprise if some deaths from “grief” in history would be takotsubo. When people had little, but confidence to move on, it was reasonable to think that “some gods hit someone for whatever he had and they fell dead,” he says. Now “here is a possible physiological explanation.”