In the human body, stress cardiomyopathy (or broken heart syndrome) is a condition in which heart muscles are temporarily weakened. Stress cardiomyopathy could easily be confused with a heart attack, but stress cardiomyopathy is much less serious. Emotional stress may trigger stress cardiomyopathy. This article is about modern humans. ... Myocardium is the muscular tissue of the heart. ... A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ... Stress (roughly the opposite of relaxation) is a medical term for a wide range of strong external stimuli, both physiological and psychological, which can cause a physiological response called the general adaptation syndrome, first described in 1936 by Hans Selye in the journal Nature. ...
It was originally described in Japan as takotsubo-syndrome. Only recently has it become more known in the western world.
Current theory has it that a sudden, massive surge of adrenalinstuns the heart, greatly reducing the ability to pump blood. The common treatment for heart attack of administering adrenalin to support blood pressure is not appropriate for this condition. Epinephrine (INN) or adrenaline (BAN) is a hormone and a neurotransmitter. ... STUN (Simple Traversal of UDP over NATs) is a network protocol allowing client behind NAT (or multiple NATs) to find out its public address, the type of NAT it is behind and the internet side port associated by the nat with a particular local port. ... Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by the blood on the walls of the blood vessels. ...
For unknown reasons the great majority of stress cardiomyopathy cases have been diagnosed in women. Of 3,000,000 heart attacks in US women diagnosed each year as many as 60,000 may actually be Broken Heart Syndrome, requiring different treatment, according to some estimates.
Stress (roughly the opposite of relaxation) is a medical term for a wide range of strong external stimuli, both physiological and psychological, which can cause a physiological response called the general adaptation syndrome, first described in 1936 by Hans Selye in the journal Nature.
Such stress raises the level of adrenaline and corticosterone in the body, which in turn increases the heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure and puts more physical stress on bodily organs.
The HPA axis is believed to play a primary role in the body's reactions to stress, by balancing hormone releases from the adrenaline-producing adrenal medulla and from the corticosteroid-producing adrenal cortex.