How Happiness Causes Stroke and Heart Attack

Now, as we’ll demonstrate in details in today’s articles, we still fully recommend you seek happiness and joy.

But, you should know that there is a slight possibility this happiness can cause stroke and heart attack.

Many people are familiar with the idea that people who have lost loved ones can mourn themselves to death.

While this is an uncommon occurrence, it does happen, and scientists believe they understand how it happens. The condition even has a name.

Takotsubo syndrome, also called takotsubo cardiomyopathy or transient apical ballooning syndrome, is a condition in which the heart muscles weaken suddenly, which causes the left ventricle to balloon outward. Heart contractions become irregular and may even stop.

If this happens to you, you will probably have chest pains and struggle to breathe but, unlike when you suffer from other heart conditions caused by blocked arteries and the like, it is possible for your heart to recover and pull itself back in shape without help.

When European scientists decided to investigate the causes of this strange condition, they turned up some strange results.

Of the 1,750 people that they could find worldwide who had suffered takotsubo syndrome, 485 of them had the conditions triggered by an emotional event, while the others were triggered by infections, breathing problems, or other unknown conditions.

Of the 485 triggered by emotional events:

• 107 were caused by grief, including that following the death of a loved one or loss of a home.
• 107 were caused by anxiety, including that following family illness, accidents, damage to homes, robbery, fear of hospitalization or surgery.
• 78 were caused by interpersonal conflict, including relationship problems, divorce, problems with children, or depression.
• 77 were caused by anger, including that following an argument with a loved one, an argument at work, a traffic jam or, incredibly, a favorite football team’s loss.
• 37 were triggered by stress at work or financial problems.
• 59 patients did not specify the exact emotion, except to say they were negative emotions.
• Most interestingly, 20 cases were caused by joy or happiness, including that after a wedding, a son’s wedding, a birthday party, a successful job interview, the birth of a grandchild, winning money at the casino, and a favorite rugby team and racing car driver winning competitions.

95 percent of people who suffered an attack after strong emotions were women between the ages of 65 and 71. For some reason that researchers don’t understand yet, it does seem to be a bit of a female condition.

On the upside for those of you who get deliriously happy, while 1.1 percent (five of 465) of the people who suffered negative emotions died, not one of the 20 positive emotion sufferers died.

The scientists are not certain why both negative and positive emotions can cause this condition, other than the vague speculation that different emotions may share the same physiological pathways.

Do with this information what you like. The fact that the research team had to consult 26 hospitals in 10 countries to find 1,750 people who were hospitalized with takotsubo syndrome between 2011 and 2014 indicates that it is not an especially common condition.

On a practical level, to protect your heart, you should make sure your cholesterol is under control. Here is the exact step by step strategy I used to normalize my cholesterol and clear out my clogged arteries…

And of course lowering blood pressure is also essential. Discover how 3 easy exercises drop blood pressure below 120/80 – starting today…