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Hearts Actually Can Break

DesScorp writes "It seems that there's a grain of truth to one old wives' tale; it turns out that you really can die of a broken heart, especially if you're a post-menopausal woman. The Wall Street Journal reports on a phenomena called 'broken-heart syndrome,' which often occurs after great emotional distress. Quoting: 'In a conventional heart attack, an obstructed artery starves the heart muscle of oxygenated blood, quickly resulting in the death of tissue and potentially permanently compromising heart function. In contrast, the heart muscle in broken-heart-syndrome patients is stunned in the adrenaline surge and appears to go into hibernation. Little tissue is lost.' In the article a doctor notes, 'The cells are alive, but mechanically or electrically disabled.' Documented cases track heart attacks in people with seemingly healthy hearts after the grief of the death of a loved one. Intense feelings can cause the heart actually to change shape. Doctors call this 'tako-tsubo,' after the Japanese phrase for 'octopus trap,' so called because the syndrome was first identified by a Japanese doctor who noticed the strange shape in the left ventricle. Doctors note that while strong emotions like grief are usually associated with the syndrome, stress or a migraine can also trigger such heart attacks."

13 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. You know, Jasper... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...they may say she died from a burst ventricle, but I know she died of a broken heart.

  2. Re:I think everybody knew this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I misread your note and thought I understood why your girl decided she didn't want to become Ms. Tampax.

  3. Octopus? by zepo1a · · Score: 5, Funny

    Leave it to the Japanese to somehow work tentacles into the ailment!

    :)

    1. Re:Octopus? by AdamThor · · Score: 4, Funny

      Doctors call this 'tako-tsubo,' after the Japanese phrase for 'octopus trap,' so called because the syndrome was first identified by a Japanese doctor who noticed the strange shape in the left ventricle.

      Can you imagine the patter in the ER / OR if we were to adopt more Japanese names for common ailments?

      Doctor, the patient is suffering from the Octopus Trap!
      What? He's fibulating! Set us up the bomb!
      The Bomb is ready!
      Activate! *WHUMP*
      GASP... Beep... beep... beep...
      Doctor, he's stabilizing!
      Good! Keep an eye on him... There's a case of Giant Robot I need to address, and after that room 223's Frozen Devil Injury seems to be getting worse...

      --
      -- "Oh. This guy again."
  4. liquid nitrogen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Liquid N2 can also break your heart. Shatter it actually

  5. Re:Oh boo hoo by santax · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'll let the people with mod-points take care of you. After that, please ask your parents to lock your pc. You are not ready for it yet.

  6. Why is this news? by cyberjock1980 · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is slashdot. You think any of us have women in our lives that can break our hearts? Pfft!

    No, Mom doesn't count.. and if she did... eeewww!

  7. Re:I think everybody knew this. by ls671 · · Score: 4, Funny

    > Try being married for 27 years to a serial adulteress

    Can you please tell me where your house is located ? ;-))

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  8. Re:Just use EFT by n1hilist · · Score: 3, Funny

    EFT eh? Yes I find a strong, steady dose of Electronic Funds Transfer usually fixes a broken heart.

  9. Bad pickup line by GaryOlson · · Score: 5, Funny

    "You are so beautiful, if you don't talk to me I could die of stress-induced cardiomyopathy"

    --
    Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
    1. Re:Bad pickup line by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

      What if she's a cardiology student?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  10. Re:This was an episode of House by hey! · · Score: 2, Funny

    You want to know what a *real* prick acts like?

    Well, once years ago I had a job that included administering the company's minicomputer system. I screwed up a routine OS update, which was easy to do back in the closed source days when package Unix was up to each hardware vendor. The vendor gave us this crappy utility to run and I answered one of the questions wrong and before I knew it the company's databases were hosed.

    Fortunately I had backups. Lots and lots of backups. Daily backups going back two weeks, weekly backups going back three months, and quarterly backups going back several years. Unfortunately they'd been taken on a flaky 9-track drive that I'd been begging to have replaced. The people I worked for were fine, but the folks who approved the capital budget just didn't believe that computer hardware could fail, I guess. I'd started the update at 6PM, after the end of the work day, so nobody would be inconvenienced. It took all night to restore the system, and then all the next day to find readable versions of all the data. I ended up going through the last ten days' backups before I'd stitched everything back together. I was finished the following day when people started coming in to work. I went home, after working forty eight hours straight. Everything was back, or within spitting distance.

    Now my boss wasn't a computer guy, but he was a mensch, a good guy, and a few months later on my boss cited this incident on may annual review as an example of extraordinary dedication. When I sat down for my review and he handed me that evaluation, I read it, and then I threw it in his face.

    *That* is the way a real prick acts.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  11. Re:Hmm... by Frank+T.+Lofaro+Jr. · · Score: 2, Funny

    That is still no comfort at all if you are an hour away from medical attention, but it seems like it could be quite valuable for the cases that do make it to hospital before their brains are irrecoverable mush.

    And for those whose brains are mush, they can get a job as a Windows admin.

    --
    Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!