GENEVA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- A heartbreak after a sad event could literally "break your heart" -- and the blame may be on your brain, scientists believe.
"Broken Heart Syndrome', also known as Takotsubo syndrome (TTS), is a sudden temporary weakening of the heart muscles, accompanied by symptoms including chest pain, shortness of breath and sometimes heart attack.
TTS usually appears shortly after severe emotional stress like heartbreak after a breakup or death of a loved one, in addition to other types of extreme sadness, anger, or fear.
A recent Swiss study published in the European Heart Journal sought for more clues underpinning a possible heart-brain correlation. The researchers, which comprised of neuroscientists and cardiologists, compared MRI brain scans from 15 TTS patients with those of 39 healthy patients and looked at three areas of the brain -- amygdala, hippocampus, and cingulate gyrus.
These areas are involved in emotional processing, motivation and memory, collectively controlling our response to stress and regularly interact with each other. The amygdala and cingulate gyrus also handle certain unconscious bodily functions such as the heartbeat and breathing.
According to the study, TTS patients have exhibited a breakdown in communication between these regions of their brains controlling both emotional processing and automatic bodily processes.
"(This finding) strongly supports the idea that the brain is involved in the underlying mechanism of TTS," Christian Templin, a cardiology professor at University Hospital Zurich and the study's lead researcher, said in a news release.
The study suggests that our emotions can take a much greater toll on our physical health than we realize, which is why it's important to pay attention to your emotional health and holistic wellbeing.
