Daily Dose - Heartache and heart attacks

[Guest guest]

I don't put a lot of faith in this fellow, but I think he's got a good point

here.

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Daily Dose

 

****************************************************October 11, 2005

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Broken Heart Syndrome christened, finally

 

In today's pill-for-everything world, doctors and patients alike seem to be

losing sight of the connection between emotional well-being and health.

Nowadays, prescription drugs are relied upon to fill emotional voids instead of

friends, lovers, spouses, and family members.

 

Either that, or " therapy, " which is in many cases nothing more than simply

paying someone to give the kind of attention and emotional involvement all

humans crave - and that we need in order to survive. But this, like medication,

is a poor substitute for good old-fashioned love and friendship.

 

I've written about this kind of thing before, usually from a perspective of how

fulfilling social interactions and loving relationships can have a positive

affect on the heart - especially among men. According to past studies I've

referenced, healthy emotional involvement can contribute to a 50% decrease in

heart disease risk for men (this is more effective than any prescription drug

has proven to be, by the way), as well as halving the likelihood of second heart

attacks among both sexes.

 

But I digress...

 

My main point is that health, especially of the heart, is profoundly affected by

emotion. And now we can point to a study that demonstrated severe emotional

trauma can cause temporary symptoms that are nearly identical to a heart attack,

including shortness of breath, chest pains, and fluid in the lungs. These

effects have been known to last several days, but resolve fully over time.

Further, these symptoms are often assumed to be heart attacks, and many times no

doubt lead to NEEDLESS HEART SURGERY.

 

The research, conducted by Johns Hopkins University physicians and published in

the New England Journal of Medicine, catalogued for the first time this

condition - which many doctors have known about, but have never officially

documented. Differing from acute stress cardiomyopathy (actual heart attack or

sudden death triggered by emotional trauma) only in the sense that it is not

lethal or permanently damaging to the heart, the newly-named Broken Heart

Syndrome causes a surge in adrenaline and stress hormones that mimic heart

attacks, possibly by constricting blood vessels in the heart.

 

The study focused on 19 ER patients who had suffered major emotional trauma,

including the death of a spouse or immediate family member, armed robbery, a car

wreck, a court appearance, or a surprise party. Their MRI scans revealed no

signs of actual heart attack, yet the subjects experienced very real, measurable

symptoms of cardiac distress. It just goes to show how closely linked our minds

and hearts really are.

 

And in case you still don't believe in things like dying of a broken heart...

 

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The disease everyone knows about but the doctors

 

I'm not much for psychobabble, but every once in a while, the shrinks get one

right. Case in point: A contingent of European psychologists are reviving one of

the oldest diagnoses in history:

 

Lovesickness.

 

Though known to most everyone - including just about every playwright and

novelist in history - by its symptoms, " lovesickness " nevertheless enjoys no

formal acceptance in the medical literature of the day. Never mind that

according to a recent BBC article, the condition was officially recognized as a

perfectly diagnosable state of mind for thousands of years before the

Enlightenment.

 

Proclaiming that one CAN die of a broken heart (especially in cases of

unrequited love), these head-doctors are urging heart doctors to take more

seriously the symptoms of lovesickness: Despair, insomnia, tearfulness,

depression and physical exhaustion. Apparently, it can kill those who succumb to

it - and not just by way of suicide (although that's quite common with the

lovelorn, the data shows).

 

It's a well-known medical phenomenon (ask any insurance actuary) that when one

partner in a long-time married couple dies, the other often follows into the

great beyond a short time later - even if there are no life-threatening health

problems present. Laymen and playwrights call it " losing the will to live. "

 

But MDs don't call it much of anything - they can't prescribe a drug for it, so

it must not exist...

 

Never losing the will to tell the ever-loving truth,

 

William Campbell Douglass II, MD

 

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" When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have

peace. "

Jimi Hendrix