(Ann W. Schmidt/ Fox News) — “Broken heart” syndrome, a disease that causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, new research has found.
In an article published in the European Heart Journal on Tuesday, Swiss researchers said they found a connection between the way the brain communicates with the heart and broken heart syndrome, also called takotsubo syndrome (TTS).
Caused by intense emotional events, TTS is a rare, temporary condition that weakens the left ventricle and disrupts its normal pumping function.
For their research, Swiss neuroscientists and cardiologists conducted MRI brain scans on 15 TTS patients — on average, about a year after their diagnosis — and compared them to scans of 39 healthy people. (…)