This article is from the Chatelaine magazine, February, 2008.

Love hurts.

Can heartbreak actually damage your heart? The cardiologist Justin Ezekowitz of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in Edmonton, Canada has found that grief can trigger a rare condition called transient apical ballooning syndrome - in layman's terms, a broken heart. The heart doesn't break, but it does weaken and beat abnormally. It even visibly changes shape and looks like a deflated balloon, or a teardrop. "Extreme emotional trauma can hammer the heart with a surge of adrenaline," Dr. Ezekowitz says. Thankfully, most of the time, the damage isn't permanent. Most of the broken - hearted mend within a few weeks.

Thank you for the post Sue.
This is very interesting. Let us avoid a broken heart for a long period of time if possible, or better still, not at all, if we can.

Love,
Vicky

Thank you Sue.

This is quite the information.

I better make sure that nobody is going to break my heart.

Gisele

Thanks Sue for posting this.

Our physical bodies react when our emotional one is hurt.
Yet...we all heal if we choose to do so.

Love,
Sylvie

Thank you for the post Sue.

I had no idea that the heart actually changes shape during periods of intense sorrow.

A broken heart (or heartbreak) is a common metaphor used to describe the intense psychological pain one feels after losing a loved one, through death, divorce, or other means as in breaking up with someone or having your partner move away.[citation needed].

Heartbreak is usually associated with losing a spouse or lover, though losing a parent, child, or close friend can also "break one's heart"[citation needed]. According to The Lancet, it was found that the risk of death increases by up to a fifth in people who had their hearts broken[1].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_heart

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Heal A Broken Heart

It takes time! Here are some basic tips. Make sure you also read the articles, which you can access from the side menu.

Honor how you are feeling. This means that you should not pretend that you are ok, when you really aren't. There is nothing wrong with crying.

Communicate with people that care about you. Make sure you share how you are feeling. Do not underestimate the support that these people can provide.

Exercise regularly and take care of your health. Often times during the period of having one's heart broken, health may be neglected. If you aren't careful, this can only make things worse.

Some people like to travel.

A great way to move through a broken heart is to spend a lot of time doing something you really love. This can be a hobby, work, or anything! If you keep yourself busy you will find yourself moving through the pain faster.

http://www.broken-heart-help.com/

Very interesting indeed!
A broken heart is one of the greatest factors of stress. It seems easy to pretend being ok, but the deep sorrow within goes on and the psychological damage always carries along also physical damage.

I have often witnessed such situations and it is not easy at all to avoid the pain. There is good advice in this thread. It is important to have someone to talk to!

May we all be strong!

love and strength
Marhgerita

This is a very interesting topic.
Thank you Sue and everyone for your input.

You can find some more valuable information at the following website:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2005/02_10_05.html

“BROKEN HEART” SYNDROME: REAL, POTENTIALLY DEADLY BUT RECOVERY QUICK
-- Hopkins scientists discover that emotional shock can trigger sudden, reversible heart failure that is not a classic heart attack
Hopkins cardiologist Ilan Wittstein, M.D.

Shocking news, such as learning of the unexpected death of a loved one, has been known to cause catastrophic events, such as a heart attack.

Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that sudden emotional stress can also result in severe but reversible heart muscle weakness that mimics a classic heart attack. Patients with this condition, called stress cardiomyopathy but known colloquially as “broken heart” syndrome, are often misdiagnosed with a massive heart attack when, indeed, they have suffered from a days-long surge in adrenalin (epinephrine) and other stress hormones that temporarily “stun” the heart...



Love,
yoko

Aaahhhh.. a heartwarming post!

Such great information, a heartfelt THANK YOU dear Sue, and all the rest of you dear hearts as well!

quote:

Originally posted by dear Sue 1:

Heal A Broken Heart
...

Honor how you are feeling. This means that you should not pretend that you are ok, when you really aren't. There is nothing wrong with crying.

Communicate with people that care about you. Make sure you share how you are feeling. Do not underestimate the support that these people can provide.
...

A great way to move through a broken heart is to spend a lot of time doing something you really love. This can be a hobby, work, or anything! If you keep yourself busy you will find yourself moving through the pain faster.

I remember missing someone I had been close to, and reading about chakras and such, and I could almost see a connection between our hearts broken..

And my heart chakra dangling like an umbilical chord that needs cutting off!

In here you all have shared real medical help though, thanks!!!

Don't forget Cosmic Inner Smile our topic with:



Also, a topic dear Inda started: http://givnology.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/56460593/m/95960893 recently.. he he.. ok! 5 years ago.. boy!

quote:

"Creating Health."
I will post a paragraph from this book here:

...Then health, illness, life and death are not absolutes, they are bound up in us and come from us. Our way of looking at ourselves makes us what we are. If we could only change our way of looking, we could in fact change all notions and therefore all realities of living, aging, mortality, and ultimately immortality--for it is our notions that construct those realities. This conclusion dawns upon us once we grasp the idea that our thoughts and our way of seeing indeed structure the entire material universe...

GOING TO GO DO SOMETHINK I LOOOOVE!

Love and LIGHT BEING, Teo