Broken heart
Name(s):
Grief-induced death
Broken heart syndrome
Nature
A broken heart (also known as heartbreak or heartache) is a metaphor for the intense emotional stress or pain one feels at experiencing great loss or deep longing. The concept is cross-cultural, often cited with reference to unreciprocated or lost love.
Failed romantic love can be extremely painful; people with a broken heart may succumb to depression, anxiety and, in more extreme cases, post-traumatic stress disorder.
Source: Wikipedia
Incidence
"Heart-break" is impermissible as a medical cause of death, and on death certificates the most common entries are heart disease and cancer. The death rate from heart complaints of a sample of British widowers was 67% above expectation. A USA study linked 71% of a sample of women with cancerous cervical smears had feelings of loss and hopelessness.
Being 'broken-hearted' as a result of emotional trauma may be a more apposite turn of phrase than we imagined. US researchers have shown how sudden emotional stress can release hormones that stun the heart into submission, resulting in symptoms that mimic a typical heart attack. People suffering from stress cardiomyopathy (takotsubo cardiomyopathy in Japan), or 'broken-heart syndrome', seem to be having a heart attack: they have chest pain, fluid in the lungs, shortness of breath and heart failure. But although the ability of the heart to pump is significantly reduced and the heart muscle is weakened, it is not killed, or infarcted, as in a classic attack. The syndrome is linked with elevated levels of hormones called catecholamines (particularly adrenaline).
Claim
Grief can damage the heart by over-stimulating the body and eroding its defences. The emotional stresses of loss, rage, despair or terror that accompany the experience of heart-break may arouse sleeplessness, hyperventilation and the increased secretion of stress hormones. All can cause physical deterioration of the heart and possible eventual failure.
Aggravated by
Strategy(ies)
Value(s)
Type
(F) Fuzzy exceptional problems