Can you die from a broken heart? Technically, you cannot, but it may feel like it. A rare condition called broken heart syndrome strikes middle-aged to elderly women and can mimic the symptoms of a heart attack, including high blood pressure and an abnormal EKG. The patient will typically be brought to an emergency room and be put through the typical heart tests; however, within hours those same symptoms that brought her to the hospital will be gone, and she will leave, completely healthy.
Broken heart syndrome is not a commonly known condition and is not often discussed or written about. It is not so much a physical condition as it an emotional one; however, it does cause real pain and feels every bit as real as a heart attack. The cause is extreme emotional situations, including intense fear, anxiety or physical stress. When this happens, alert hormones, called catecholamines, are flooded throughout the body's system. These hormones make your entire body react - raising the blood pressure, causing chest pain, shortness of breath and other symptoms that can cause both patient and doctor to be convinced that it is a legitimate heart attack.
The condition, technically called stress cardiomyopathy, is temporary in most cases. The catecholamines in broken heart syndrome (BHS) are two to three times higher than the levels of an actual heart attack patient and seven to 34 times higher than what is considered a normal level. This condition is considered to be rare, is rarely fatal and does not cause any lasting damage to the heart. It rarely returns after the initial episode (Source: Agatston, MD 2010).
It happens to a lesser degree to most people. For instance, the pounding heart after a near miss car accident or when you hear a loud noise in the middle of the night are both examples of heart stress. Normal anxiety or stress can progress, however, and may end up resulting in broken heart syndrome.
Despite the fact that broken heart syndrome is rarely fatal, it is important that you never let yourself be lulled into a false sense of security. It is a very rare syndrome in the first place, and women's heart attack symptoms are hard enough to recognize and are rarely treated in a timely manner, resulting in the woman's death from her first heart attack. While pain or other symptoms can result from extreme shock or panic, it is also likely that you are in fact having a heart attack. If there is any chance at all that you are, or you are not 100 percent sure, it is best to go to the emergency room to be safe rather than sorry.
The most common sufferer of broken heart syndrome is the 60 year old woman - also the most common age for female heart disease sufferers. Men start seeing increased heart disease risk at age 45-50, while women's increased risk starts later. Risk factors for heart disease include high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking or living with a smoker, obesity (most particularly abdominal fat), sedentary lifestyle and insufficient estrogen (Source: Ammer 2005). Heredity and family history also play a role in assessing the risk factors for developing heart disease.
Learning to reduce those factors that can be changed and to deal with those that cannot is important. Diet and exercise are also important to include in a new healthy lifestyle. Using the DASH diet (fresh fruits and vegetables, reduced sodium and lean protein sources) is also very beneficial.
Exercise Suggestions
Before starting any exercise routine, it should be discussed with your doctor to make sure that you are healthy enough for physical activity and that you are selecting something that will be beneficial rather than harmful. For instance, a steady walk is a good exercise choice while trying to run a 5K on your first day out is not. Aim for enough movement to feel good but not so much that you are exhausted or too sore to move the next day. As you get more used to moving around, you can add more. Strength training is a good choice as well, and can protect women's bones from osteoporosis.
A simple reduction in weight can help to protect the heart by lowering the blood pressure and the cholesterol level.
Eating Heart Healthy
Soy protein is one of the best proteins that can be added to the diet, improving overall cardiovascular health by lowering cholesterol levels and improving the blood pressure. Making sure that the diet is healthy and well-balanced is important, especially for those who are concerned about their cardiovascular health.
Broken heart syndrome is not fatal; however, if it happens more than a few times, it can increase the chance of having real heart damage build up.
Broken Heart Syndrome and Damaged Hearts: A Case Study
Wavelene was at the funeral of her youngest sister, a heart wrenching time in her life, when she got into a minor altercation with her niece and nephew over whose fault it was that Sherilyn died at the young age of 45. The conversation got ugly, and Wavelene ended up storming away in near hysterics. The service was touching and beautiful, but afterward the fight resumed exactly where it left off. By then, Sherilyn's grieving children had enlisted a few more family members to take their side. Wavelene was trying to defend herself when she felt a horrifying pain in her chest. Convinced that she was having a heart attack, she asked her own children to take her to the emergency room. Once there, the usual tests were run - she did have extremely high blood pressure, and an echocardiogram showed that the apex of her heart (the upper section) was not moving, which is the classic sign of a coronary in progress. The ER staff was equally convinced that she was in the middle of a heart attack, and they called in a cardiologist as well as her own family physician.
Her doctor suggested a procedure to clear out the veins that he was sure were blocked, however, they soon found that she did not have any blockages at all and within a few hours, her blood pressure normalized and she felt fine. She was released from the hospital and went home, and the incident was not repeated.
To make sure that she remained in top health, Wavelene changed her diet, reducing the sodium and red meat that she was eating and adding Profect, a protein supplement from Protica. She also started exercising every other day with her doctor's permission, including strength training and cardiovascular exercise. Because of this episode, her doctor has also suggested that she monitor her blood pressure at home on a regular basis and will review this information at her follow-up visits.
To protect her heart as much as she can, Wavelene continues to watch for the risk factors that she can control and tries to not get overly stressed over the ones that she cannot, including her own personal family health history.
More Information:
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