While a lot of people struggle with different things in life, not many realize how dangerous it can be just to face certain things. Sure, this syndrome is not one that everyone faces but for those who do it can be fatal.
Broken Heart Syndrome also known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a temporary condition that affects the heart. It is brought on by extreme situations, for instance when a person is highly stressed or very sad/upset as a whole. People who have this syndrome face sudden chest pain and most assume they’re somehow having a heart attack. While the symptoms of this syndrome are something that can be treated according to Mayo Clinic, issues like this can be fatal in some cases as noted above.
This kind of thing can be triggered by just about anything. It could be something big or something small, we all face things in our own ways. Whether it’s brought on by domestic abuse, some kind of diagnosis that scares you, the loss of someone you love, or something else this syndrome is nothing to joke about. The more aware of it we are the more prepared we can be for it if/when it presents itself.
Hopkins Medicine wrote as follows breaking down how this kind of thing is different from a heart attack:
Stress cardiomyopathy can easily be mistaken for heart attack. Patients with this syndrome can have many of the same symptoms that heart attack patients have including chest pain, shortness of breath, congestive heart failure, and low blood pressure. With a closer look, however, there are some major differences between the two conditions. First, most heart attacks occur due to blockages and blood clots forming in the coronary arteries, the arteries that supply the heart with blood. If these clots cut off the blood supply to the heart for a long enough period of time, heart muscle cells can die, leaving the heart with permanent and irreversible damage. This is completely different from what is seen with stress cardiomyopathy. First, most of the patients with stress cardiomyopathy that both we and others have seen appear to have fairly normal coronary arteries and do not have severe blockages or clots. Secondly, the heart cells of patients with stress cardiomyopathy are “stunned” by the adrenaline and other stress hormones but not killed as they are in heart attack. Fortunately, this stunning gets better very quickly, often within just a few days. So even though a person with stress cardiomyopathy can have severe heart muscle weakness at the time of admission to the hospital, the heart completely recovers within a couple of weeks in most cases and there is no permanent damage.
While you might think your heart is in good shape, things can change in big ways without you realizing it. Stress and things of that nature take serious tolls on us and some of those tolls can be in regard to our heart health. If you’re going through something intense emotionally and you face chest pain, shortness of breath, and things of that sort you should probably keep in mind that this is a diagnosis you may end up with. When it comes to our hearts, we should not take things lightly.
This kind of thing is nothing to joke about and should be taken seriously. It can have serious effects and holds long-term risks. When we are under stress working to reduce that stress-load is important. While it’s important to feel things, sometimes we need to know when to take time for ourselves to resolve the issues within as best we can.
To learn more about this interesting syndrome take a look at the video below. While we cannot necessarily prevent this entirely, we can become aware of it so if we are ever affected, we will know what is happening. Our lives are important and when your heart hurts, you should not just brush it off.