Scientists show we can die of a broken heart

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/10/nheart10.xml

 

 

Scientists show we can die of a broken heart

 

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

 

Last Updated: 12:47am BST 10/04/2007

 

Scientists have charted for the first time how intense stress caused by

bereavement can make someone " die of a broken heart " .

A British team has found that the regions of the brain responsible for

learning, memory and emotion can destabilise the cardiac muscle of someone

who already has heart disease.

When we are under stress, these " higher regions " of the brain take part in a

vicious circle of activity which can trigger harmful rhythms, researchers

say.

While it has always been suspected that emotional problems could put the

heart under pressure, this was believed to have been caused by " primitive "

brain regions, such as the brain stem sending messages to heart tissue.

Bereavement has been one such unexplained problem.

The discovery of a new relationship between heart and brain, published

online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals how

irregular cardiac rhythms are triggered, which can lead to sudden death in

patients with underlying conditions.

 

While it has always been suspected that emotional problems could put the

heart under pressure, this was believed to have been caused by " primitive "

brain regions, such as the brain stem sending messages to heart tissue.

Bereavement has been one such unexplained problem.

The discovery of a new relationship between heart and brain, published

online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals how

irregular cardiac rhythms are triggered, which can lead to sudden death in

patients with underlying conditions.

 

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University

College London and the Brighton & Sussex Medical School (BSMS) studied 10

patients with specific heart conditions, measuring electrical changes at the

surface of the skull.

 

The patients performed the mildly stressful task of counting backwards in

sevens.

 

The scientists noted that activity in " higher level " regions, such as the

cortex, not only reflected the responses of the heart to stress, but also

became involved in a " feedback loop " , often worsening the situation by

making the heart muscle less stable.

 

Dr Marcus Gray, from BSMS, said: " We know that stress can increase the risk

of sudden death through cardiac arrest and that the brain areas responsible

for regulating heart function can be unbalanced by stress. Our research

suggests that the cerebral cortex may play a significant role in these

events by becoming involved in a vicious circle. "