Understanding Broken Heart Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment

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Broken Heart Syndrome

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Causes And Treatment Of Broken Heart Syndrome

Yes, broken heart syndrome (also known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy or stress induced cardiomyopathy) is a real heart condition. Broken heart syndrome is a temporary and reversible heart condition whose symptoms mimic those of a heart attack. Unlike heart attacks, broken heart syndrome occurs when sudden emotional or physical stress causes a weakening of the heart muscle.

You’ve likely heard the phrase “broken heart” used metaphorically, but did you know it can be a real medical condition? Broken heart syndrome, also known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy or takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is a temporary heart condition that can have serious consequences. Suppose you’ve experienced intense emotional or physical stress and are feeling symptoms like chest pain or shortness of breath. In that case, visiting our Atlanta heart doctors for a thorough evaluation is crucial.

Broken heart syndrome occurs when the heart is overwhelmed by a sudden surge of stress hormones. These hormones, including adrenaline, epinephrine, noradrenaline, and norepinephrine, can temporarily disrupt the heart’s normal function. It’s like the heart experiencing an emotional shock that affects its physical performance.

You might wonder how stress can have such a profound effect on your heart. During broken heart syndrome, stress hormones interfere with your heart’s functionand cause part of your heart—specifically the lower portion of the left ventricle—to temporarily enlarge. Meanwhile, other areas of your heart may contract more forcefully to compensate. This imbalance leads to a temporary form of heart failure.

The symptoms of broken heart syndrome can be alarming and similar to those of a heart attack. You might experience sudden, intense chest pain, shortness of breath, or an irregular heartbeat. Some people report feeling lightheaded or fainting. These symptoms often appear shortly after a stressful event, whether it’s emotional (like the loss of a loved one) or physical (such as a severe illness or surgery).

By visiting our CVGheart doctors, you’re taking an important step toward protecting your heart health. Our cardiologists are experts in diagnosing and treating broken heart syndrome. They can perform electrocardiograms, blood tests, and imaging studies to differentiate this condition from other heart problems and assess any damage to your heart muscle.

During your visit, you’ll receive personalized care. Our doctors will evaluate your recent experiences with stress and your overall health. They’ll work with you to develop a management plan, which might involve short-term medications to support your heart function and reduce stress on your cardiovascular system. They can also guide stress management techniques to help prevent future episodes.

Don’t dismiss chest pain or other heart symptoms, even if you think they’re “just stress.” Schedule an appointment with our Atlanta heart doctors today to ensure your heart functions properly. While broken heart syndrome is usually temporary, it’s crucial to receive proper care to prevent complications and support your heart’s recovery. Your emotional and physical heart health are deeply connected, and our team is here to help you maintain both for optimal well-being.

Read on for more information on broken heart syndrome and how CVG provides comprehensive cardiac care.

Risk Factors For Broken Heart Syndrome

Broken heart syndrome usually affects women more so than men, as well as people over the age of 50. Another factor that may increase your risk of developing broken heart syndrome is whether you’ve been diagnosed with a current or previous mental health disorder, such as anxiety and depression.

Causes Of Broken Heart Syndrome

Broken heart syndrome is brought on by physical or emotional stress. Physical stressors that may cause this condition include severe pain, exhausting physical activity, and a variety of health issues such as asthma attacks, difficulty breathing (dyspnea), seizure, stroke, high fever, low blood sugar, intense blood loss, or surgery.

Emotional stressors that may cause broken heart syndrome include intense good news (surprise party or winning the lottery), intense bad news, grief from the death of a loved one or other meaningful loss (divorce, loss of home, loss of job, loss of money, loss of pet, etc.), intense fear, and extreme anger.

This condition is thought to be brought on by a sudden surge of stress hormones such as adrenaline, epinephrine, noradrenaline, and norepinephrine, which might temporarily cause a decrease in heart health. These hormones interfere with your heart’s ability to function properly and candisrupt your heart’s normal rhythm, temporarily enlarge part of your heart (the lower portion of the left ventricle), and creating more forceful contractions in other areas of your heart. These changes lead to temporary heart failure.

In rare cases, use of certain drugs may lead to the development of broken heart syndrome, such as emergency medications used to treat severe allergic reactions or asthma attacks, anxiety medications, nasal decongestants, or illegal stimulants such as methamphetamine or cocaine.

Testing For Broken Heart Syndrome

To determine whether you are experiencing broken heart syndrome, your doctor will first conduct a physical examination and review your medical history. After this, a series of tests might be ordered, including an electrocardiogram (EKG), coronary angiography, echocardiogram, chest X-ray, cardiac MRI, and a ventriculogram. These tests will help rule out any other possible causes of your symptoms and properly diagnose your condition.

Treatment For Broken Heart Syndrome

Treatment for this condition depends on the severity of the symptoms. Typically, your doctor will prescribe medications for either short term or long term use. Long term medications include ACE inhibitors , angiotensin receptor blockers, beta blockers, and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists which help the heart recoverand anti-anxiety medications to manage stress. Short term medications may include diuretics to decrease fluid buildup.

Depending on the extent to which your heart muscle was weakened, your doctor may also recommend cardiac rehabilitation, a program which strengthens your heart muscle by helping you receive regular physical activity, along with education about healthy lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, reducing alcohol consumption, and switching to a healthy diet. The program also offers counseling to relieve stress and improve mental health.

Symptoms Of Broken Heart Syndrome

With broken heart syndrome, the release of stress hormones temporarily stuns your heart muscle and produces symptoms that are similar to the experience of a heart attack. These symptoms include sudden and severe chest pain, shortness of breath, weakening of the left ventricle of your heart, fluid in your lungs, irregular heartbeat (arrhythmias), and low blood pressure.

Complications Of Broken Heart Syndrome

Although complications arising from this condition are rare, they can sometimes occur. Possible complications due to broken heart syndrome include a rupture in the left ventricle of the heart, blockage of blood flow from the left ventricle, blood clots in the wall of the left ventricle, left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, cardiogenic shock, complete atrioventricular block, congestive heart failure, and even death.

Prevention Of Broken Heart Syndrome

While there are no known treatment options for the prevention of this condition, stress management and relaxation techniques can help to reduce the physical and emotional stress that can lead to the development of broken heart syndrome. These methods include relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, journaling, or taking a warm bath. Stress management techniques include eating a healthy diet, getting regular physical exercise, getting seven to nine hours of sleep each night, reducing alcohol and tobacco consumption, and keeping up with medical appointments.

Why Choose CVG?

At CVG, our cardiologists offer extensive experience caring for patients using state-of-the-art techniques. Their compassion adds so much to your care because our doctors understand how heart issues can affect you physically and take an emotional toll. Trust is the #1 factor in the doctor/patient relationship. You can trust your CVG cardiologist with every aspect of heart care.

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Board-certified Doctors

CVG’s twenty board-certified heart doctors will guide you through your healthcare journey with the utmost compassion and individual attention. We aim to provide you with state-of-the-art cardiac care that includes the full spectrum of services, from testing to diagnosis and treatment. The doctor/patient relationship is built on trust. Through our combined efforts, we can conquer any challenge that comes our way.

Invasive therapies may also treat an abnormal heart rhythm, such as electrical cardioversion, which sends electrical impulses through your chest wall and allows normal heart rhythm to restart, or catheter ablation that disconnects the abnormal rhythm’s pathway. Suppose your doctor determines that electrical devices are the best course of action. In that case, you may be given a permanent pacemaker, an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), or biventricular (B-V) pacemakers and defibrillators.

How CVG Can Help

CVG offers multiple services that can discover an enlarged heart or conditions that will lead to it. At CVG, we perform stress tests that will observe blood flow and test for various forms of heart disease. There are three types of stress tests that we perform:

A treadmill test is a test in which you will walk on a treadmill that gets faster and steeper every 3 minutes. This will stress your heart so that our nurse or doctor can determine your heart rate and blood pressure.
An echo test is performed before and after your treadmill test to determine how well your heart pumps blood.
A nuclear stress test is a treadmill test that is prefaced by an injection of medicine that shows the flow of blood to your heart.

We also offer cardiac catheterization to diagnose and treat several heart issues. If any of these tests determine a problem, we offer treatment solutions such as atrial fibrillation testing and catheter ablation. Learn more about our services here, or schedule an appointment to talk to our doctors.

Schedule Your Appointment with a CVG Atlanta Area Cardiologist

Expertise, experience, and compassion are the pillars of CVG’s patient-centered cardiac care. Please schedule your appointment with CVG today. Call (770) 962-0399 or 678-582-8586. You may also request an appointment online. If you have an emergency, don’t contact us online; please call 911.