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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Why men with broken heart syndrome are more likely to die, according to | |
experts | |
By Kameryn Griesser, CNN | |
Updated: | |
4:04 PM EDT, Sat June 7, 2025 | |
Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. for | |
information and tools designed to improve your well-being. | |
Source: CNN | |
A 59-year-old man arrived at the Peking University First Hospital in | |
Beijing for a procedure when he started having severe and shortness of | |
breath. | |
Four months earlier, he had cancerous tumors removed from his bladder. | |
Around his family, he tried his best to appear strong and avoided | |
discussions of his health. Privately, his severe anxiety over the | |
possibility of a cancer recurrence kept him awake at night. | |
Doctors said the man was experiencing takotsubo cardiomyopathy — also | |
known as broken heart syndrome, as documented in a . The rare | |
stress-induced heart condition has been observed primarily in women, | |
but a published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in May | |
found that the illness may be more deadly for the men who get it. | |
Thought to be caused by extreme emotional or physical events — such | |
as learning about the death of a loved one, winning the lottery or | |
lifting a heavy sofa — , or TC, occurs when the heart muscle is | |
flooded with stress hormones, causing part of it to “freeze” in | |
place. As the heart struggles to properly pump blood, symptoms resemble | |
those of a heart attack, including chest pain, heart palpitations and | |
irregular heartbeat. | |
The new study analyzed data from nearly 200,000 patients hospitalized | |
for TC in the United States between 2016 and 2020. While women | |
accounted for 83% of the cases, men were more than twice as likely to | |
die from the condition — with a mortality rate of 11.2%. | |
“The differences between men and women are a very striking | |
finding,” said study coauthor Dr. Mohammad Reza Movahed, a clinical | |
professor of medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “It | |
raises a new, interesting question that should really be studied.” | |
Broken heart syndrome in men vs.women | |
Similar to differences between men’s and women’s cardiovascular | |
health more generally, the discrepancies in TC death rates are not well | |
understood, Movahed said, especially because they trends in other heart | |
diseases. It’s widely theorized, however, that differences in hormone | |
levels play a role. | |
Stressful situations trigger the adrenal glands to release our | |
fight-or-flight hormones, called catecholamines. They are meant to | |
increase our blood pressure and raise our heart rate, but extreme | |
levels can temporarily “stun” cells in the heart’s tissue, | |
leading to TC, Movahed explained. | |
Men are thought to produce more catecholamines during stressful | |
situations compared with women, possibly leading men to present with | |
cases of TC, he suggested. | |
Estrogen, a sex hormone produced at higher levels in women, may also | |
have a on the cardiovascular system, making it easier to manage an | |
extreme influx of catecholamines and reducing the risk of severe | |
complications from TC, said Dr. Louis Vincent, a noninvasive-cardiology | |
research fellow at the University of Miami, who coauthored a similar, | |
multiyear investigating discrepancies in men and women who had TC. | |
Vincent was not involved in the new study. | |
Beyond biological differences, social factors may play a role as well. | |
“Most (physicians) know about takotsubo, but they may think of it as | |
a disease just affecting women, so the diagnosis might be overlooked in | |
men,” said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, a cardiologist and the director of Mount | |
Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital who was not involved in the study. “With | |
misdiagnosis, care is delayed, and that can sometimes lead to worse | |
outcomes.” | |
Men may also seek care at a later stage of illness, believing that | |
their symptoms are manageable or may pass, said Dr. Alejandro Lemor, an | |
assistant professor of interventional cardiology at the University of | |
Mississippi Medical Center who was also not involved in the study. | |
Deadly complications from TC include blood clots, stroke, cardiac | |
arrest and heart failure, Lemor said. If the condition is caught early, | |
medications can reduce the risk of having these complications, restore | |
proper heart function and allow for full recovery within weeks, he | |
added. | |
Higher mortality rates in men need further study | |
Movahed’s team was able to factor for important variables like age, | |
race, income, chronic lung disease, hypertension and diabetes in the | |
findings. | |
However, there was no patient data on other comorbid diseases, such as | |
a history of stroke or the presence of a Covid-19 infection, Vincent | |
said. | |
Additionally, the new study included in-patient diagnostic data only | |
for those hospitalized with TC, so those who received outpatient care | |
or died later from complications outside the hospital were likely not | |
counted in the analysis, Movahed noted. | |
To establish a firmer explanation for the differences in mortality | |
rates between men and women and further test treatment methods, a more | |
detailed dataset would be needed, Vincent said. | |
“People should be aware in studies like this, we’re presenting | |
findings that are based on diagnostic codes, and we’re not looking at | |
patient procedures or lab results,” Vincent said. “But it’s | |
powerful in the sense that it lets us look at large populations and | |
look at trends. And I think that this trend of a higher mortality in | |
men is worth taking a deeper look into.” | |
Don’t try to ‘tough it out’ | |
Sudden, severe chest pain or shortness of breath should always be | |
treated as a medical emergency, warned Bhatt, who is also a professor | |
of cardiovascular medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount | |
Sinai in New York City. | |
“It’s not a time to tough it out at home or get on the internet to | |
figure it out. … Don’t try to track down your primary care | |
provider. Call emergency services,” Bhatt said. “Time matters. By | |
winning those few hours, you could save yourself irreparable damage to | |
your heart.” | |
Symptoms following physical stressors — a common cause of TC in men | |
— should not be ignored, Movahed said, especially preceding medical | |
events such as asthma attacks, seizures or complications from drug use. | |
And while TC is caused by sudden stress, Bhatt said that managing | |
chronic stress with daily meditation or exercise can lead to overall | |
while giving you routines to fall back on in unexpected situations. | |
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