Women More Likely Than Men to Suffer from Broken Heart Syndrome

A nationwide study in the United States has found that women are more likely than men to suffer from heart failures or heart attack-like symptoms, also known as “broken heart syndrome,” that is brought about by sudden or prolonged emotional stress. Broken heart syndrome is a condition where in a sudden emotional stress, such as a breakup or death of a loved one or even winning a lottery, triggers a rush of adrenaline which balloons the main pumping chamber of the heart, leading to heart attacks.

University of Arkansas’ Dr Abhishek Deshmukh said that he initially treated some cases and became curious when all of his patients were women. He then conducted a large scale study using a federal database consisting of more than 1,000 hospitals and found 6,229 cases in 2007.

Dr Deshmukh found that more than 5,550 cases involved women while just 671 cases involved men. Taking other factors, such as high blood pressure and smoking, into account, he found that women were 7.5 times more likely to suffer from this condition compared to men.



Source-Medindia