It may sound like a cliché from a movie or song, but Danish researchers have learned that you really can die from a broken heart.
The researchers examined a type of irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation, which is a common effect of sudden loss or shock. They found that those dealing with sudden loss had a 41% higher risk of atrial fibrillation – which can cause stroke or heart failure – than those who weren’t grieving, according to an April 5, 2016 article in Today.
That risk was nearly double in the first two weeks after death and remained elevated for a year.
“The elevated risk was especially high for those who were young and those who lost a relatively healthy partner,” Dr. Simon Graff of Aarhus University in Denmark and colleagues wrote in the journal Open Heart.
Those whose partners were relatively healthy in the month before they died were 57% more likely to develop atrial fibrillation, which often is known as “a-fib,” according to an April 6, 2016 article from CBS News. The increase didn’t occur in people whose partners were in poor health.
“Many patients describe that their atrial fibrillation gets worse at a time of emotional stress,” Dr. Mark Estes, director of the New England Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, told CBS. “This really validates prior observations. It’s something we hear from our patients all the time.”
The study compared 88,000 people in Denmark first diagnosed with atrial fibrillation between 1995 and 2014 with more than 880,000 healthy people of similar age and circumstances.
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Signs and symptoms
Both the American Heart Association (AHA) and Johns Hopkins Medicine have web pages devoted to broken heart syndrome. What follows is information about signs and symptoms.
Broken heart syndrome is better known as stress cardiomyopathy – “a condition in which intense emotional or physical stress can cause rapid and severe heart muscle weakness,” according to Johns Hopkins. It also may occur after strokes, seizures, difficulty breathing and significant bleeding.
Symptoms are similar to those that occur during a heart attack and include chest pain, shortness of breath, congestive heart failure and low blood pressure.
That said, broken heart syndrome is not the same as a heart attack, the AHA said. EKGs of the heart’s electric activity look different, while blood tests will show no signs of heart damage. Broken heart syndrome doesn’t produce signs of heart damage, blockages in the coronary arteries or ballooning in the lower left heart chamber.
In addition, recovery time for broken heart symptom is much quicker – days or weeks – compared to at least a month for a heart attack.
Other good news is that someone who experiences stress cardiomyopathy is not likely to develop the same problem the next time they experience severe stress, Johns Hopkins said. And since heart muscle is not damaged, patients can typically make a complete recovery.
The AHA noted that the issue does not impact the sexes equally.
“Women are more likely than men to experience the sudden, intense chest pain — the reaction to a surge of stress hormones — that can be caused by an emotionally stressful event,” the AHA wrote.
