What is broken heart syndrome?

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What is broken heart syndrome?

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Broken heart syndrome is a temporary heart condition, caused by stressful situations and extreme emotions.

Its scientific names are stress cardiomyopathy, Tako-Tsubo cardiomyopathy or apical ballooning syndrome.

It is a temporary heart failure whose symptoms are similar to those of a myocardial infarction, but usually without serious consequences. Patients often present with chest pain, tachycardia, shortness of breath, hypertension, decreased pulse pressure.
The prognosis is generally benign and complete recovery after a few weeks.

To identify the disease it is necessary to carry out certain studies that will determine the cardiomyopathy:

  • Personal history and physical exam
  • Electrocardiogram
  • Echocardiography
  • Blood test
  • Cardiac MRI
  • coronary angiography

Studies of a total of 2,416 patients with stress cardiomyopathy found that 90% – 92% were women with a mean age of 66 to 68 years and experienced intense emotional stress 1 to 5 days ago, indicating that women Postmenopausal women have a higher incidence of this syndrome. The most frequent triggers are the death of a loved one, aggression, violence, natural disasters, love breakups, divorces, accidents or economic losses. Diabetes can be a risk factor.

Broken heart syndrome is an acute heart disease that must be treated promptly with the appropriate treatment to avoid serious consequences.

BROKEN HEART SYNDROME

The regions of the brain that are activated when we feel pain in the body are also activated when we have a sentimental breakup. This is known as broken heart syndrome, or lovesickness.

Michigan Ethan Kross social psychologist at the University of Michigan conducted a study with 40 people. The study builds on previous research showing that rejection and physical pain activate other areas of the brain related to negative emotions. "The mind, brain and body are closely related," says Kross. “These discoveries may offer insights into how heartbreak and rejection can lead to various types of diseases and disorders.”

These are some of the symptoms that we can point out after a breakup:

  1. Physical pain: The pain caused by an emotion can be much more intense than what we actually experience since it can be persistent.
  2. Withdrawal syndrome: The feeling of love or illusion caused by another person works in the same way as that caused by an addiction.
  3. Negative thoughts: The brain unconsciously prepares negative and exaggerated thoughts that are repeated during the grieving process.

This is why it is important to keep the mind and body busy in other activities that can be rewarding and healing, for example a trip, painting, reading, chatting, in order to avoid that when negative thoughts arrive they can be so harmful to our body and mind. .

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