Broken Heart Syndrome

Tako - Tsubo cardiomyopathy is an acute cardiomyopathy that can be provoked by a stressful or emotional situation or exposure to high doses of catecholamines (sympathomimetic drugs). This cardiomyopathy is most common among middle-aged women, appears to be related to catecholamine release, and in most cases is fully reversible with supportive care. Electrocardiographic findings of myocardial infarction in the presence of left ventricular dysfunction and absence of epicardial coronary stenoses should prompt the diagnosis. Endomyocardial biopsy is of value to exclude myocarditis, which can also mimic acute myocardial infarction, and demonstrates contraction band necrosis. Enough with the medical jargon......

What this basically means is that there is a form of heart disease that can mimick a heart attack but whose true cause may just be being over stressed leading to release of the fight or flight hormones ( adrenaline). Did you also know that research at Harvard university has shown that one of the ingredients required for one to live to 100yrs is to be optimistic about life. It also compared people who had suffered a heart attack and categorised them into optimistic guys and pessimistic guys based on a questionare they answered. The optimistic guys were doing much better 5 years down the line while a greater proportion of the pessimists had suffered a recurrent heart attack ( with all other things between the two groups held constant).

This gives me a whole new meaning to the verse " Guard your heart... proverbs 4:23)