The Broken Heart Syndrome

( Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy)

Is your heart pierced with an arrow when you are romantically linked with someone from the other sex ?

Our scriptures endow Kamdev with a bow and arrow with which he has tried to pierce Lord Shivji’s heart but had failed. So also western literature talks about the winged Cupid’s arrows. Then what is the target ?

Is this half pound of flesh sitting inside our bosom to our left is the citadel of all our romance ?

Cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar, the author of the book: Heart a history, recounts a meaningful incident.

His grandfather was bitten by a snake. But he was quite hale and hearty even after the snake bite. Then the villagers brought in the dead snake that has bitten him. A Black and shiny cobra. Grandfather had one look at the dead snake and collapsed. He was rushed to hospital where he died. The doctors said that he had died of hear failure, not snake venom.

During the Covid pandemic, most of the patients who were shifted to ventilator have died. Some of the cases which could not be shifted to an ICU because of no vacant beds had survived.

How many of those Covid death is due to fright?

Often we hear spouses have succumbed when they got the message of death of their better halves or mothers in case of death of children. In our native places it is said to be the result of an invitation of the dead.

Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy 

(The Broken heart Syndrome)

After all this half pound of flesh that we called the anatomic heart may actually be the seat of our emotions. Now scientists have found out that, our heart literally balloons up after an intense emotional or physical experience and can get chocked in the process.

This is known as Stress cardiomyopathy (SCMP) in medical language: A heart condition that arises out of extreme emotional stress. The apex of our heart balloons out as the heart pumps and tries to squeeze the blood inside it out into our body. The ventricle instead balloons out so that no blood goes out of heart. The heart fails in the process. This leads to failure of heart, breathing difficulties and swelling of body of the patient. Most of the weak hearted persons land in this state.

The ballooning of apex of our left heart resembles a Takotsubo.

Tako-tsubo is an ancient Japanese device to trap octopuses in the sea. (See pic)

As our heart resembles exactly like a Takotsubo, it is known as Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy.

After dissection of thousand human bodies both living and dead, we have not yet found out the proverbial target of the Cupid’s arrow. But now we know that when our heart chokes after intense emotion, the site of attack is this half pound of flesh beating right behind our bosom to our left, the Heart.