Can a Broken Heart Kill You?

I have heard countless stories of elderly couples who—after many years of marriage—die within hours or days of one another.  The story of my own grandparents is not far from that.

“They died of a broken heart,” we say of the person who died shortly after the loss of their spouse.

I can personally attest to both emotional and physical changes in my grandfather after my grandmother passed.  An internal switch flipped to the “off” positon inside him and he simply shrunk and faded away.

Yesterday, I saw, on several news sources, that medical professionals have concluded broken hearts are a real thing.

Yes, a broken heart can kill you.

According to an article posted by Maggie Fox at NBC News, the scientific name for a broken heart is takotsubo cardiomyopathy or takotsubo syndrome.  The word takotsubo means “octopus pot” in Japanese.  The reference to an octopus pot is due to the way the heart disease physically changes the shape of the heart.

A broken heart appears very much like a heart attack on the electrocardiogram, but it is not.  Takotsubo syndrome is thought to be triggered by brain signals to adrenal glands.  The signals cause the adrenal glands to release hormones that alter the rhythm and, ultimately, the shape of the heart.

The disease is commonly blamed when couples die with a few days or even hours of each other.

Studies conducted internationally indicate that both physical and emotional stress can cause the onset of takotsubo syndrome.  Men appear to be more likely than women to die from the disorder.

--Mitchell Hegman