It's true...having a broken heart is a real medical condition...just ask a woman from the Texas Hill Country, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
In an article published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Konstantinos Charitakis of UT Health Houston talks about treating a woman who was in mourning due to the death of her beloved dog.He says when he checked her heart, she had real physical symptoms.
"The apex of the heart takes the form of a balloon," he told News Radio 1200 WOAI's Michael Board.
"Its the presentation of a real heart attack from the patient's standpoint," he said. "People come in, and they have real chest pains."
Dr. Charitakis says its a condition called takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which frequently mimics the pain of a heart attack. He says the woman suffered heart pain so serious, she was airlifted to the hosptial.
Doctors tell the New England Journal that the grief creates stress hormones which act on the heart just like a standard heart attack.
The diagnosis is rare and seldom serious or fatal.
Doctors say the most frequent patients who suffer from 'Broken Heart Syndrome' are otherwise healthy middle aged women.