Study finds happiness, as well as sadness, can trigger ‘broken heart syndrome’

[yuiyoshida]

PARIS – Joyful events — the birth of a child, a big win by your team — can trigger a dangerous condition called the “broken heart syndrome,” doctors and researchers reported Thursday.

Takotsubo syndrome, as it is also called, involves the sudden weakening of heart muscles, causing the left ventricle — the chamber that pushes oxygen-rich blood through the body — to balloon out abnormally at the bottom.

In 2011, a pair of researchers in Switzerland — Christian Templin and Jelena Ghadri, both of University Hospital Zurich — set up a global registry to track cases of the syndrome, which is fairly rare.

Five years later, the network of 25 hospitals spread across nine countries had collected data on statistically significant 1,750 cases of the Takotsubo syndrome (TTS).

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/03/03/world/science-health-world/study-finds-happiness-well-sadness-can-trigger-broken-heart-syndrome/#.VtgWp30rLMq