Broken Heart Syndrome

10-Oct-2010

Tags: Broken Heart , Stress

Think twice before you tease your friend after he's being ditched by his girlfriend. As per researchers, 70% of people being ditched in love can end up having Broken Heart Syndrome (BHS) also called stress cardiomyopathy which is triggered by extreme and sudden emotional trauma. But it must be cleared that BHS can also be due to other reasons apart from love issues.

BHS generally occurs suddenly in healthy patients (usually women) & it immediately follows severe emotional stress, & in worst cases, resulting to a heart attack.
Symptoms of BHS are fairly similar to that of a heart attack. Therefore it is very important to understand the actual difference between the two. Most heart attacks are caused by a complete blockage of a heart artery due to a blood clot forming at the site of narrowing from fatty buildup. Whereas, in broken heart syndrome the heart arteries are not blocked, although blood flow in the arteries of the heart may be reduced.

Symptoms of BHS:
• Shortness of breath
• Chest Pain
• Stomach Pain
• Lack of Hunger
• Lack of Sleep
• Always feeling sad, depressed and stressed.
• Getting irritated from small things.
• Tiredness
• Feeling of Hate
• Heart attack

Broken heart syndrome is treatable, and usually requires about a week to recover.
If you're having any of the above problems, seek emergency medical assistance immediately.

What can cause BHS:

• An unexpected breakup.
• A sudden Shock.
• Long tiring schedule.
• Any intense physical or emotional event happened in one's life.
• An unexpected death of a loved one.
• A frightening medical diagnosis.
• Domestic abuse.
• Loosing a lot of money.
• A car accident.
• A major surgery.

Treatment:
There are no standard treatment guidelines for treating broken heart syndrome as there is no specific therapy. The treatment for BHS is very much similar to that of a heart attack. Mostly the patient needs to go through:
• Personal history details and overall physical examination
• ECG
• Chest X-ray.
• Echocardiogram
• Blood tests
And after all the tests are done, Doctors prefer keeping the patient in the hospital while they recover, which takes about a week. As per the Doctors, in 80 percent of the patients, symptoms disappear spontaneously after staying in hospital for a couple of weeks, leaving no trace behind, while in the few cases the damage persists. The fact is that the damage caused by this syndrome is in the heart but not in the coronaries. Therefore it is very important to take care of your heart and seek medical help as soon as you find any of the above symptoms in you.

Previous

Random health

Next