women are more often exposed to a broken heart syndrome

A woman's heart breaks more easily than a man.

Females are 7-9 times more likely to suffer from "broken heart syndrome", when all of a sudden or prolonged stress due to relationship problems or death from heart attack or heart failure such extraordinary symptoms, the first national study findings Usually these patients. recovered without permanent sequelae.

The classic case is "a woman who just lost her husband," said Dr. Mariell Jessup, heart failure specialist at the University of Pennsylvania who has treated many cases.

Cyndy Bizon afraid that occurred when her husband, Joel, suffered a massive heart attack in 2005. "God works through your hands," said the wife of a surgeon in Maine that her husband was taken to the operating room before her. He fell into the "broken heart syndrome" nurses station and ends with him to a coronary care. Both of them survived.

Japanese doctors first recognized this syndrome in around 1990 and was called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, Tako Tsubo octopus traps are reminiscent of the flat hit an unusual heart-shaped.

This occurs when a shock, even as good as winning the lottery, it triggers the flow of stress hormones, adrenaline and other major causes of the heart chambers to pump the ball and suddenly it does not work either. Tests showed dramatic changes in blood levels and substances typical of a heart attack, but without blocking the arteries that usually cause. Most victims recover within a few weeks, but in rare cases is fatal.

Dr. Abhishek Deshmukh at the University of Arkansas has been treating some of these cases.

"I really want to know why the woman only has this," he said, as the first major study of this problem and reported results Wednesday at the American Heart Association conference in Florida.

Using a database with about 1,000 federal government hospitals, Deshmukh 6229 cases in 2007. Only 671 people were involved. After adjustment for blood pressure, smoking and other factors that can affect heart disease, women appear 7.5 times more likely than men to suffer from the syndrome.

There are three times more common in women over 55 than in younger women. And women under 55 was 9.5 times more likely to suffer from what the people of this age.

No one knows why, said Dr. Abhiram Prasad, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic who presented more research on this syndrome during the conference.

"This is a heart condition where there is a dominant female," he said.

One theory is that hormones play a role. Another is that men are more adrenaline receptors on cells in their hearts that the women ", so maybe men are better at dealing with stress" and the release of chemical waves, said Deshmukh.

Bizon was 57 when the attack occurred, she is now 63. She and her husband pharmacist and lived in Scarborough, Maine.

"I remember the capture bar and a black curtain falls before my eyes," he said in a telephone interview. His attack was so severe that a full heart attack and should be shocking his heart back into normal rhythm. Although most attacks are resolved without permanent damage, but requires a defibrillator.

Approximately 1 percent of cases are fatal, a new study.

"In the past, we would say that someone is afraid to die," said Prasad.

About 10 percent of the victims will have a second episode during their lifetime. And while most heart attacks occur in winter, broken heart syndrome is more common in summer.