Broken Heart can be a real and alarming medical condition

Hearts are for love, but when broken there can be pain---and real distress

Do you have trouble breathing and chest pain and did your sweetheart tell you he (or she) is going with someone else on Valentine's Day, the cowardly way of saying goodbye? That broken heart may be more than 'just saying.'

Broken heart can actually refer to a medical condition that comes about during times of acute stress. These occasions can be divorce, the death of a spouse or a serious medical diagnosis, such as cancer. It can also happen with someone is having severe financial problems.

Cardiologist Sara Sima, M.D. Of Loyala University, tells us there is such a thing as broken heart syndrome which is also known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy. The actual cause is unknown but is described as the condition related to stress and that has many of the features related to a real heart attack.

Dr. Sirna tells us, “Like a heart attack, broken heart syndrome can be very alarming to patients. But unlike a heart attack, broken heart syndrome usually is reversible, with no long-lasting effects on the heart muscle. Most affected individuals regain cardiac function within a short period of time.”

It is not uncommon, medical professions say, that people will have more health problems in general following a major crisis. The immune system can be compromised during times of great stress. There is an overload on the body's normal demands, so one can be at work, doing what may even be pleasurable ordinarily, then feel extraordinarily tired or apathetic.

Problems related to stress include not just a broken heart but chronic headaches, diabetes and other conditions that cause a multiple of symptoms have all been tied to stress.

A broken heart, one thinks, might just last for a week or two, then will be gone. And whereas, that is likely true in most cases, it can create pain and problems as well.

But just in case, if you experiencesymptoms such as chest pain and difficulty breathing, then it's important to get help right away, even if you are under stress of some kind and think the pain will just pass. Call 911, doctors like Dr. Sirna remind us, because you may lose a lover, or your body may be indeed having a serious health emergency and the pain related to the lover loss might turn to pleasure once you are cared for medically—or just find another lover.