Latest news with #brokenHeartSyndrome
CTV News
17 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
Men are more likely than women to die of broken heart syndrome, study finds
Characterized by chest pain, palpitations and shortness of breath, takotsubo cardiomyopathy is thought to be caused by extreme emotional or physical stress. LaylaBird/E+/Getty Images via CNN Newsource A 59-year-old man arrived at the Peking University First Hospital in Beijing for a procedure when he started having severe chest pain and shortness of breath. Four months earlier, he had cancerous tumors removed from his bladder. Around his family, he tried his best to appear strong and avoided discussions of his health. Privately, his severe anxiety over the possibility of a cancer recurrence kept him awake at night. Doctors said the man was experiencing takotsubo cardiomyopathy — also known as broken heart syndrome, as documented in a 2021 case study. The rare stress-induced heart condition has been observed primarily in women, but a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in May found that the illness may be more deadly for the men who get it. Thought to be caused by extreme emotional or physical events — such as learning about the death of a loved one, winning the lottery or lifting a heavy sofa — takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or TC, occurs when the heart muscle is flooded with stress hormones, causing part of it to 'freeze' in place. As the heart struggles to properly pump blood, symptoms resemble those of a heart attack, including chest pain, heart palpitations and irregular heartbeat. The new study analyzed data from nearly 200,000 patients hospitalized for TC in the United States between 2016 and 2020. While women accounted for 83% of the cases, men were more than twice as likely to die from the condition — with a mortality rate of 11.2%. 'The differences between men and women are a very striking finding,' said study coauthor Dr. Mohammad Reza Movahed, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. 'It raises a new, interesting question that should really be studied.' Broken heart syndrome in men vs. women Similar to differences between men's and women's cardiovascular health more generally, the discrepancies in TC death rates are not well understood, Movahed said, especially because they counter trends in other heart diseases. It's widely theorized, however, that differences in hormone levels play a role. Stressful situations trigger the adrenal glands to release our fight-or-flight hormones, called catecholamines. They are meant to increase our blood pressure and raise our heart rate, but extreme levels can temporarily 'stun' cells in the heart's tissue, leading to TC, Movahed explained. Men are thought to produce more catecholamines during stressful situations compared with women, possibly leading men to present with more severe cases of TC, he suggested. Estrogen, a sex hormone produced at higher levels in women, may also have a protective effect on the cardiovascular system, making it easier to manage an extreme influx of catecholamines and reducing the risk of severe complications from TC, said Dr. Louis Vincent, a noninvasive-cardiology research fellow at the University of Miami, who coauthored a similar, multiyear study investigating discrepancies in men and women who had TC. Vincent was not involved in the new study. Beyond biological differences, social factors may play a role as well. 'Most (physicians) know about takotsubo, but they may think of it as a disease just affecting women, so the diagnosis might be overlooked in men,' said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, a cardiologist and the director of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital who was not involved in the study. 'With misdiagnosis, care is delayed, and that can sometimes lead to worse outcomes.' Men may also seek care at a later stage of illness, believing that their symptoms are manageable or may pass, said Dr. Alejandro Lemor, an assistant professor of interventional cardiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center who was also not involved in the study. Deadly complications from TC include blood clots, stroke, cardiac arrest and heart failure, Lemor said. If the condition is caught early, medications can reduce the risk of having these complications, restore proper heart function and allow for full recovery within weeks, he added. Higher mortality rates in men need further study Movahed's team was able to factor for important variables like age, race, income, chronic lung disease, hypertension and diabetes in the findings. However, there was no patient data on other comorbid diseases, such as a history of stroke or the presence of a Covid-19 infection, Vincent said. Additionally, the new study included in-patient diagnostic data only for those hospitalized with TC, so those who received outpatient care or died later from complications outside the hospital were likely not counted in the analysis, Movahed noted. To establish a firmer explanation for the differences in mortality rates between men and women and further test treatment methods, a more detailed dataset would be needed, Vincent said. 'People should be aware in studies like this, we're presenting findings that are based on diagnostic codes, and we're not looking at patient procedures or lab results,' Vincent said. 'But it's powerful in the sense that it lets us look at large populations and look at trends. And I think that this trend of a higher mortality in men is worth taking a deeper look into.' Don't try to 'tough it out' Sudden, severe chest pain or shortness of breath should always be treated as a medical emergency, warned Bhatt, who is also a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. 'It's not a time to tough it out at home or get on the internet to figure it out. … Don't try to track down your primary care provider. Call emergency services,' Bhatt said. 'Time matters. By winning those few hours, you could save yourself irreparable damage to your heart.' Symptoms following physical stressors — a common cause of TC in men — should not be ignored, Movahed said, especially preceding medical events such as asthma attacks, seizures or complications from drug use. And while TC is caused by sudden stress, Bhatt said that managing chronic stress with daily meditation or exercise can lead to better cardiovascular health overall while giving you routines to fall back on in unexpected situations.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Men Are Twice as Likely to Die From This Stress-Related Heart Issue
Stress hits everyone. Whether it's the loss of a loved one, a job, or the end of a relationship, dealing with grief is never easy. But for men, the stakes may be even higher. Research shows that men are twice as likely to die from takotsubo cardiomyopathy—a stress-induced heart condition better known as 'broken heart syndrome'—compared to women. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association examined nearly 200,000 U.S. adults from 2016 to 2020. Researchers found that although the heart condition was more common among women, the death rate among them was half that of men at 5.5%, compared to 11.2% for men. 'Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a serious condition with a substantial risk of death and severe complications,' said study author M. Reza Movahed, M.D., Ph.D., an interventional cardiologist and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona's Sarver Heart Center in Tucson, ArizonaTakotsubo cardiomyopathy, aka broken heart syndrome, is a heart condition most often brought on by extreme emotions or stressful situations. While it generally occurs temporarily, people can continue to feel unwell for long periods of time. Symptoms include shortness of breath and chest pain. During the study period, major complications caused 35.9% of participants to die from congestive heart failure, 20.7% from atrial fibrillation, 6.6% from cardiogenic shock, 5.3% from stroke, and 3.4% from cardiac arrest. 'The health care team needs to carefully review coronary angiograms that show no significant coronary disease with classic appearance of left ventricular motion, suggesting any subtypes of stress-induced cardiomyopathy," Movahed said in a press release. "These patients should be monitored for serious complications and treated promptly." He also adds that some complications, such as embolic stroke, could be prevented with early detection and treatment. Movahed added that further research is needed to fully understand the mortality discrepancy between males and females and how to best manage patients with this condition.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Men are more likely to die of 'broken heart syndrome,' study says
After a traumatic event like a divorce or the death of a loved one, some people may experience chest pain and shortness of breath — the result of a condition known colloquially as 'broken heart syndrome.' The syndrome, which doctors formally call takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is thought to be triggered by physical or emotional stress, which releases bursts of stress hormones like adrenaline that prevent people's hearts from contracting properly. Most patients recover quickly, but a small minority suffer heart failure. Although broken heart syndrome is most common in women, men die from it at more than twice the rate, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study analyzed data from nearly 200,000 adults in the U.S. who were hospitalized with broken heart syndrome from 2016 to 2020. Around 11% of men in that group died, compared with roughly 5% of women. The data reinforce previous studies that showed higher mortality rates in men. 'It seems to be a consistent finding that men don't get takotsubo syndrome as much, but when they do, they do worse,' said 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. The differences between men and women may have something to do with what's triggering their conditions, cardiologists said. In men, broken heart syndrome is usually brought on by a physical stressor, such as a surgery or stroke. In women, the impetus is typically emotional, like losing a job or loved one. 'The people with emotional stressors actually do quite well,' said Dr. Ilan Wittstein, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, who wasn't part of the new research. 'Men may be more at risk for dying and having bad outcomes because they're less susceptible to begin with,' he said. 'So it takes a more dangerous trigger to precipitate the syndrome." The study's lead author, Dr. Mohammad Movahed, said men may also have a harder time recovering from broken heart syndrome since they tend to have less social support to help them manage stress. '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. But scientists still have lingering questions about what's driving the syndrome, and why people die from it in rare cases. 'People are still looking for the holy grail of what causes this condition,' Wittstein said. To confirm that a person has broken heart syndrome, doctors look for a few tell-tale signs. In a typical patient, part of their heart muscle is enlarged like a balloon, but they do not have a blocked artery, which is usually associated with heart attacks. Most patients can also point to a stressful event that predated the episode. 'The stresses that we endure in our daily lives, both physical and emotional, can in fact take tolls on us,' said Dr. Matthew Tomey, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York City. 'You can feel the heartache in those moments, and there may literally be some heartache of sorts that's accompanying that.' But Wittstein said stress alone may not be enough to trigger broken heart syndrome. 'Some people just get a little frustrated at work, or somebody was out jogging a little too vigorously, or somebody just got stuck at a red light and was annoyed,' he said. Reynolds said one of her patients has had the syndrome four times — each event precipitated by minor stomach bugs that caused her to vomit. 'She just really hates vomiting and will throw up and get' takotsubo cardiomyopathy, she said. Wittstein now believes some patients may have an underlying susceptibility to broken heart syndrome. His research suggests that stress hormones can constrict tiny blood vessels surrounding the heart, which decrease blood flow. That would make certain people, such as those with high blood pressure or high cholesterol, more susceptible, he said. Research has also shown that post-menopausal women are more prone to broken heart syndrome. Wittstein said that's probably due, in part, to a decline in estrogen, which helps dilate the tiny blood vessels around the heart. But Reynolds said there's not enough research to know that for sure. 'It's at some level obvious that sex hormones are implicated but trying to draw that link and really connect the dots, we have not gotten there yet,' she said. Cardiologists said the mysteries surrounding broken heart syndrome can make it hard to prevent or treat. Doctors occasionally prescribe medications used for other heart issues, such as beta blockers, or find ways to help people reduce stress, such as meditating and talking to a mental health professional. 'We have not found anything so far — any medication, any specific treatment — that can reduce complications or reduce mortality,' Movahed said. His new study found that deaths from broken heart syndrome were relatively stable from 2016 to 2020 — a sign that the current treatment landscape isn't sufficient, he said. But Wittstein said the study relied on diagnostic codes given to hospitalized patients, which can sometimes miss the full picture of what contributed to a person's death, especially if that person had a stroke or other neurological issue. 'I'm quite sure that some of these people recovered from the broken heart syndrome and then died of complications of something else,' he said. Cardiologists said their best advice is to encourage patients to go to the hospital if they have chest pain or shortness of breath, and not to dismiss their symptoms as stress. 'You can't tell the difference between this and traditional heart attacks until you get to the hospital and have a series of tests,' Reynolds said. 'So it is not appropriate to stay home when you have chest pain.' This article was originally published on
