Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy
The government, DWP and Atos surely KNOW about this condition. By placing sick and disabled individuals under severe chronic stress, they are playing russian roulette with each and every life.
Why a shock can kill you (even good news): Release of adrenaline after sudden discovery can lead to heart problems
By Sophie Borland|
A shock can be fatal – and it makes no difference whether it's the trauma of a loved one's death or the excitement of a lottery win, experts claim.
Research suggests that a startling revelation can pose a danger to health whether the news is positive or negative.
And it seems women who have just been through the menopause are most at risk.
Researchers say they have identified how emotional trauma - from winning the lottery to losing a close relative - can trigger a potentially lethal catastrophe in the body they call the 'broken heart syndrome'.
They say the news or event causes the body to produce large amounts of stress hormones including adrenaline, which narrows the main arteries which supply blood to the heart.
This paralyses the heart's main pumping chamber, causing a sudden change in rhythm similar to a heart attack.
The victim will suddenly find it very difficult to breathe, have sharp pains in their chest and may feel very weak. Some die, although many recover if given urgent medical treatment.
Scientists have been aware for some time of 'broken heart syndrome', or patients who apparently die from grief after losing a loved one, but they have not fully understood why it happens.
Professor Nienaber said broken heart syndrome mostly affects women who have gone through the menopause
Now, however, researchers from the University Clinic of Rostock, in northern Germany, have come up with a possible explanation based on studies of patients.And they say the reaction isn't necessarily triggered by a bereavement – it could also happen after winning the lottery or even having an argument.
Dr Christoph Nienaber, director of cardiology at the university, said: 'These patients suffer under a heavy emotional load, either positive or negative. Their hearts literally break. It usually happens within minutes to an hour of hearing the news.
'The typical scenario is bad news but there are reports of both and we don't know what causes it most.
'We are very far from a conclusion however, this is only speculative.'
He added: 'It mostly affects women who have undergone the menopause and are aged between 50 and 70 when they fall ill.
'We are still unsure why it seems to affect this group the most.' One theory is that the female body reacts especially strongly to stress hormones after menopause.
It is estimated that 2 per cent of the 300,000 Britons recorded as having a heart attack every year have suffered from broken heart syndrome – amounting to some 6,000 patients.
The exact figures are not known as many will simply be recorded as having had a heart attack.
Dr Nienaber said that most patients in these cases survive, provided they receive swift treatment.
Daily Mail
Why you really can suffer from a broken heart
Last updated at 09:27 10 February 2005Doctors were today urged to recognise the unique symptoms of "broken heart syndrome" in patients who appear to have suffered a heart attack.
Shocking events such as the death of a loved-one or being the victim of crime have long been known as possible triggers for medical conditions such as a heart attack.
Now researchers in the United States have found that sudden emotional stress can also lead to severe but reversible heart muscle weakness which mimics the symptoms of a heart attack.
The team, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, said that patients with this condition - stress cardiomyopathy or "broken heart syndrome" - were often misdiagnosed with a massive heart attack.
Instead they had actually suffered from a surge in adrenalin and other stress hormones that temporarily "stun" the heart.
The researchers, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said they while "broken heart syndrome" was not as common as heart attack, it probably occurred more often than doctors realised.
Dr Ilan Wittstein said: "Our study should help physicians distinguish between stress cardiomyopathy and heart attacks. It should also reassure patients that they have not had permanent heart damage."
The researchers found that some people responded to sudden and overwhelming emotional stress by releasing large amount of stress chemicals like adrenalin into the bloodstream, as well as breakdown products and small proteins produced by an excited nervous system.
They said these chemicals could be temporarily toxic to the heart, effectively stunning the muscle and producing symptoms similar to a typical heart attack - chest pain, shortness of breath and heart failure.
By examining a group of 19 patients with symptoms of "broken heart syndrome", the researchers found that it was clinically very different to the typical heart attack.
The patients, 18 of whom were women, had signs of an apparent heart attack after emotional stress, including a death, shock from a surprise party and an armed robbery.
They were compared to seven other patients who had suffered a severe heart attack.
Dr Wittstein said: "After observing several cases of 'broken heart' syndrome at Hopkins hospitals - most of them in middle-aged or elderly women - we realised that these patients had clinical features quite different from typical cases of heart attack, and that something very different was happening.
"These cases were, initially, difficult to explain because most of the patients were previously healthy and had few risk factors for heart disease."
Tests on these patients showed no blockages in the arteries which supplied the heart.
Blood tests also failed to reveal some of the typical signs of a heart attack - such as high levels of cardiac enzymes that are released into the bloodstream from damaged heart muscle.
MRI scans revealed that none of the stressed patients had suffered irreversible muscle damage. The researchers said of one surprise was that recovery rates in the stressed patients were much faster than typically seen after a heart attack.
Within a few days the patients showed dramatic improvement in the heart's ability to pump and had completely recovered in two weeks.
In comparison, partial recovery after a heart attack can take weeks or months, and often the heart muscle damage is permanent.
Levels of stress chemicals in the stressed patient group were also significantly higher than in those with a classic heart attack.
Researcher Dr Hunter Champion said: "How stress hormones act to stun the heart remains unknown, but there are several possible explanations that will be the subject of additional studies.
"The chemicals may cause spasm in the coronary arteries, or have a direct toxic effect on the heart muscle, or cause calcium overloads that results in temporary dysfunction."
The researchers said they expected the number of patients diagnosed with "broken heart syndrome" to increase as more doctors learnt to recognise its unique clinical features.
Daily Mail
Why a broken heart really can kill you and women are NINE times more at risk
Condition brought on by sudden or prolonged stress can lead to heart failure
Tests show dramatic changes in rhythm and blood substances typical of a heart attack, but no artery blockages
By Deborah Arthurs
The end of a romance or the death of a loved one really can cause the heart to break – and women are the most likely to suffer.
Research shows that a shock or emotional trauma can trigger the symptoms of a heart attack or other cardiac problem.
Women are up to nine times more likely to suffer ‘broken heart syndrome’, the first large-scale study of the condition has concluded.
Women are seven to nine times more likely to suffer a heart attack from shock or distress - with no sign of blocked arteries or previous history of cardiac problems
Tests show dramatic changes in rhythm and blood substances typical of a heart attack, but none of the artery blockages that typically cause one.
Most patients recover with no lasting damage, but 1 per cent of cases prove fatal.
Dr Abhishek Deshmukh, a heart specialist at the University of Arkansas in the U.S., studied the phenomenon after noting he had treated more women for ‘broken heart syndrome’ than men.
A trawl of records of 1,000 hospitals revealed 6,229 cases in 2007. Only 671 of these involved men.
Taking into account factors such as high blood pressure revealed women to be 7.5 times more likely to suffer the syndrome than men. It was three times more common in females over 55 than those under.
Broken heart syndrome can occur as a result of shock - usually from bad news, but occasionally from good, such as a lottery win
No one knows why women are more vulnerable but sex hormones may be at play or men’s bodies may be better at handling stress. The conference also heard that while heart attacks happen more in winter, broken heart syndrome is more common in summer. It can also be brought on by ‘good’ shocks such as winning the lottery.
The study looked specifically at heart problems but bereavement can also damage health in other ways, with men the weaker sex.
A British study found that losing a wife puts the widower at six times a higher risk of death, while a widow’s chances of dying are doubled.
The risk peaks for either surviving spouse in the first year after bereavement, with those married the longest in greatest danger. It is thought the resultant stress depresses the immune system, making existing medical conditions worse.
Ex-prime minister James Callaghan was said to have died of a broken heart after he passed away aged 92 in 1995, days after Audrey, his wife of 67 years.
In 2009, the parents of Spandau Ballet’s Martin and Gary Kemp died within 48 hours of each other.Their father Frank, 79, suffered a heart attack. His wife Eileen, 77, was in the same Bournemouth hospital having a heart bypass. Her sons told her when she came round and she died soon afterwards.
Daily Mail
