Broken heart syndrome

It's a real medical condition

by Lisa Marie Conklin

Stress cardiomyopathy or “broken heart syndrome” is a condition that got its name because a lot of patients suffered from it after the death of a loved one.

However, grief doesn’t always trigger it. Intense emotions such as extreme fear, anxiety, or a surprise can bring it on. Sometimes it will follow physical stressors to the body such as stroke, seizure, significant bleeding, an asthma attack, or emphysema. These factors can cause rapid and severe heart muscle weakness.

People who experience broken heart syndrome have similar symptoms that are associated with a heart attack. Chest pain, shortness of breath, congestive heart failure and low blood pressure.

These symptoms can begin within minutes or hours after the person has been exposed to unexpected stress. Though the symptoms are similar there is no way you can tell if it is a heart attack or stress cardiomyopathy so don’t take any chances and seek medical attention at once!

What’s going on with my ticker?

The good news about broken heart syndrome is that the heart is only temporarily stunned and usually recovers with no permanent damage. Patients generally recover quickly and make a complete recovery and rarely suffer recurrence. On the other hand, a heart attack occurs when there are blockages and blood clots forming in the coronary arteries.

If the blood supply is cut off from the blockage for a long enough period of time, permanent and irreversible damage occurs. A stress cardiomyopathy patient has no blockage or permanent damage

to the heart or the heart cells because the heart is merely stunned from the rush of adrenaline and usually will completely recover within a couple of weeks. When you’re admitted to the hospital your symptoms will likely be treated as if you were having a heart attack. Once stress cardiomyopathy is identified the course of action will be to support the heart and make sure it gets stronger and your blood pressure improves.

This will probably include diuretics to remove excess fluid from the lungs and vasodilators to open blood vessels. Once the stress hormone levels fall back to normal your heart will regain its previous pumping activity.

Your body on stress

When your body is exposed to abnormalities of a physical (low blood sugar, dehydration or high body temperature) or intense emotional nature your body responds by producing adrenaline and noradrenaline, which are supposed to help you cope with the stress.

For example, if your body senses impending danger it will release large amounts of adrenaline to help you run faster or move a heavy object. In the case of stress cardiomyopathy, the heart muscles are overwhelmed by the massive amounts of adrenaline.

Experts are still unsure how specifically the excess adrenaline affects the heart but a couple of theories seem to tie in with the symptoms that occur.

One is the adrenaline may cause the arteries to narrow, causing a temporary decrease of blood flow to the heart. Another theory is adrenaline may bind to the heart cells which cause large amounts of calcium to enter the cells and making them temporarily dysfunctional.

Women of a certain age

Although anyone can experience broken heart syndrome, it usually affects women. According to a study conducted by Dr. Ilan Wittstein, a cardiologist at John Hopkins Medicine, 90 percent of broken heart syndrome patients are middle-aged women; most being post-menopausal and over the age of 55.

The common thread with women of this age is the decline of estrogen levels as they age. Estrogen improves blood flow to the heart. With the estrogen decline, the tissue surrounding the heart is more susceptible to stress hormones.

You may wonder if you will experience broken heart syndrome every time there is a particularly stressful episode in your life but not to worry. The John Hopkins study followed patients who encountered broken heart syndrome and though they had other stressful events in their lives none of them developed the syndrome again.

For more information on how to keep your heart healthy, visit heart.org.