Broken heart syndrome: not just for valentine’s day anymore

Can the Heart Really Be Broken?

There are certain parts of the yearlike, for example Valentine's Day, when lonely people feel evenlonelier because of the atmosphere they cannot be a part of. Usually,when these people have lost those they had loved, they startsuffering from what we call a broken heart syndrome.

Truly, people can have a broken heart.Actually, this is a condition close to a heart attack, having thesame symptoms like tightness in chest, abrupt change in the heartbeatrate etc. Therefore, our emotions are a very powerful tool which canaffect our health significantly. The same is with a broken heart. Ourbody triggers the production of stress hormones and, in the long run,triggers adrenal fatigue, damaging our heart.

However, this condition is onlytemporary, when compared to a real, regular heart attack. This meansthat a broken heart can be reversed and the symptoms can disappear,leaving one healthy once again. During heart attacks, however, theheart gets permanently damaged. Nevertheless, if not attended, abroken heart can have serious effects upon one's health as well.

Heart Attack Vs a Broken Heart

Due to all the similarities betweenthese two conditions, they are often misinterpreted. Actually, abroken heart is perceived to be a heart attack. During a seriousresearch on the subject, the scientists noticed that, among a groupof patients examined for heart problems, only 5% of the group hadactual heart attack symptoms while all the other people,predominantly postmenopausal women, had the broken heart syndrome.

These women had either lost someonedear to them, like a diseased husband or a child, or have beensuffering from depression for a longer time, again grieving oversomething. This gave science additional reasons for more researchessince this may be a cause enough for a series of medicalbreakthroughs and a change of perspective towards heart attack as acondition. Emotions truly guide us more than we presume and have aneffect so strong that, in some cases, they can be the cause of a person developing aserious condition, one's general health deterioration and even death.

Therefore, emotions should have a greatimpact on one's medical diagnosis, bearing witness of one's conditionand helping in the treatment of this person, due to the fact thatthis kind of a heart problem can be treated more easily than aregular heart attack.