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A broken heart really can kill you, study reveals
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Forget everything you thought you knew about the business of a broken heart. - photo by Jessica Ivins
Forget everything you thought you knew about the business of a broken heart.

While some might identify symptoms as uncontrollable crying, an insatiable appetite for Haagen Daas, inability to sleep and overall hopelessness, an actual broken heart will bring chest pain, dizziness, weakness, shortness of breath and fainting and it can actually kill you.

Thats because in reality, a broken heart is a rhythm disorder known medically as a takotsubo or stress cardiomyopathy, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Its caused by severe stress or emotional trauma brought on by grief, fear or anger and literally changes the shape of the heart by weakening the muscle.

Oftentimes, broken heart syndrome is the supposed culprit in cases where a husband or wife dies shortly after his or her spouse.

The problem with this kind of broken heart is that theres still much to be learned about cause and treatment, so a team of doctors from around the world decided to get down to the business of mending, according to Today.

For the study, which was published in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine researchers studied medical records of 1,750 people from the U.S. and Europe who were diagnosed with takotsubo cardiomyopathy between 1998 and 2014.

About 90 percent of those studied were women.

In terms of cause, researchers found that physical triggers, not emotional ones, were more likely to induce the disorder. Physical trauma such as surgery, broken bones or brain injury made up 36 percent of the cases, according to the study.

Emotional trauma, on the other hand, was responsible for just 27 percent of cases, while researchers couldnt identify a specific trigger in one in four patients in the study.

Other factors identified in the study: More than half of the patients had neurological or psychiatric disorders. While women were nine times more likely to suffer from the disorder, men were more likely to die of the condition.

This condition has been thought of as a benign disease, but it is actually a life-threatening disease, researcher Jelena Ghadri told MedPage Today. It is an acute heart failure syndrome associated with substantial morbidity and mortality.

Researchers also found that the risk of complications from the disorder was high with stroke, transient ischemic attacks and death being the most frequent.

While takotsubo is most often treated with beta blockers and ACE inhibitors, researchers pointed out that there are currently no solid guidelines for how to best control the condition. More studies are necessary to determine the most effective way to battle the disorder.

Since ours was a retrospective study, we are not sure what to make of this, Ghadri said. A prospective study is needed to better define the optimal treatment for this disorder.
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Have You Seen This? Street musician slays with clarinet
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Better than almost every face-melting guitar or drum solo. - photo by Facebook video screenshot

THE BIG EASY — Yeah, yeah, we all know that New Orleans is stuffed to the gills will incredible musicians.

But knowing that fact and then hearing that fact are two different things. You can step into any number of jazz clubs on any given night on Bourbon Street, and you’ll probably be impressed with virtually every act. Or you can sit at home on your comfy couch and watch this featured video.

In the video, you’ll see a woman who is in the groove. She is swinging hard, and wailing on her clarinet with a practiced expertise that makes it sounds so easy.

From note one you’ll be drawn in; your appreciation will grow with every second, and then your face will melt off when you realize how incredible she really is.

If you’ve never played a woodwind or a brass, you may not know everything that comes with a performance like this. Lung capacity and breath control are huge factors in keeping your notes clear and loud, and hitting those high notes is especially difficult.

So when this woman hits that high note and holds it for several seconds, you know you’re dealing with an exceptional musician. It means she has worked hard for years to develop skill on top of her natural talent, and we get to benefit.

It kinda makes you wonder how we let people get away with mumble rap and autotune when talent like this exists in the world.

I wish this video were longer, and I wish I had more information about this woman, but as it is, we’ll just have to appreciate the little flavor of New Orleans jazz posted by the Facebook group Clarinet Life.

Street musician killing it on clarinet

She must have lungs of iron! Its inspiring hearing the upper registers being played so well.

Posted by Clarinet Life on Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Martha Ostergar is a writer who delights in the ridiculous that internet serves up, which means she's more than grateful that she gets to cruise the web for amazing videos to highlight for your viewing pleasure.
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