While most patients can recover quickly, a small minority suffer heart failure or even death
Broken heart syndrome is real. A condition, which experts formally call takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is usually triggered by physical or emotional stress, which releases bursts of stress hormones like adrenaline that prevent people’s hearts from contracting properly. While most patients can recover quickly, a small minority suffer heart failure or even death. Research says men are more likely to die from it.
According to a new study, the condition - often triggered by extreme stress or grief—strikes mostly without warning, and its symptoms are easy to mistake for something else. Scientists say that, compared to women, men can get more emotionally distressed with sudden stressful events like the death of a loved one, which causes broken heart syndrome.
The research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analysed data from nearly 200,000 adults in the US who were hospitalised with broken heart syndrome from 2016 to 2020. Experts say around 11 per cent of men in that group died, compared with roughly 5 per cent of women.
The data, according to scientists, reinforce previous research, which shows that men have a higher mortality rate than women. “It seems to be a consistent finding that men don’t get takotsubo syndrome as much, but when they do, they do worse,” Dr. Harmony Reynolds, director of the Sarah Ross Soter Center for Women’s Cardiovascular Research at NYU Langone Health, who wasn’t involved in the study, told NBC Health.
Why are men more prone to fatalities due to broken heart syndrome?
According to cardiologists, the differences between men and women may have something to do with what triggers their conditions. In men, broken heart syndrome is usually set off by a physical stressor like surgery or stroke.
However, among most women, the impetus is typically emotional, like getting fired from work or a relationship ending.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Mohammad Movahed, said men may also have a harder time recovering from broken heart syndrome since they usually do not get more social support to manage stress as compared to women. “If you have this stressful trigger, and the stress is not gone, that’s probably going to continue to harm the heart, or at least reduce the chance of recovery,” said Movahed, a cardiologist at the University of Arizona’s Sarver Heart Center.
What are the signs and symptoms of broken heart syndrome?
Experts say you may feel broken heart syndrome symptoms within minutes to hours after the stressful event. The release of stress hormones temporarily stuns your heart muscle, producing symptoms similar to a typical heart attack. A few signs and symptoms of broken heart syndrome include:
- Sudden and severe chest pain, the main symptom
- Breathlessness
- Weakening of the left ventricle of your heart
- Irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias
- Low blood pressure levels
- Heart palpitations
- Fainting or syncope
What kinds of emotional and physical stress can cause broken heart syndrome?
A few examples of sudden emotional stressors include:
- Grief from the death of a loved one or other large or meaningful loss
- Good news, which can include surprise parties or winning a lottery/bet
- Bad news
- News of accidents or earthquakes
- Intense fear
- Extreme anger
- Severe pain
- An exhausting physical event
- Health issues, including asthma attacks, breathlessness, seizures, or stroke
