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Researchers at John Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland have come up with the term "broken heart syndrome" to describe a peculiar type of patient.
The phrase was developed as a result of their diagnosis of 20 people (18 of whom were women) who had come to the hospital complaining of a heart attack.
In each case, the individual displayed classic heart attack symptoms such as shortness of breath, pains in the chest, accumulation of lung fluid and a noticeable reduction in the heart's ability to pump blood.
However, after careful examination, including blood tests, the medical staff found no physical evidence of a heart attack. They were no heart injury, artery blockages, or the usual enzyme increases associated with heart damage.
What they did find - through an echocardiogram - was that the heart developed unusual contraction patterns with one part pumping normally (usually the lower left ventricle) but other sectors pumping at a much weaker rate.
Since there was no indication of a heart attack, researchers were curious as to what caused the problem.
They noticed a common denominator in these patients. Each of the individuals had recently experienced very stressful circumstances ranging from armed robbery to car accident to death of a loved one.
Further testing showed that during these stressful periods there had been a significant release of catecholaminies, (stress hormones such as adrenaline) which literally stunned the heart.
In their report, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2004, the medical researchers suggested these ‘broken-heart" attacks may be more common than previously thought. Reports have come in of similar attacks in Japan and other parts of the U.S.
In most instances, the individuals will fully recover within two to three weeks.
Throughout the scripture there are references to "broken heart" which is commonly associated with mental and emotional anguish. It is a broken spirit or heart that drieth up the bones Proverbs 17:22. In Isaiah 61:1, the ministry of the Messiah is characterized by the fact he would "bind up (heal) the brokenhearted." The issues are real and crippling and with enough power to affect our physical well being.
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