The Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is a temporary heart condition caused by stressful situations, which is why it is known as the “broken heart syndrome“; however, a new study reveals that it could also be caused by pleasant emotionswhich is why it is also called the “happy heart syndrome“.
“Recently, emerging evidence reveals that TTS can also be triggered by pleasant emotional life events in some patients, hence it is called “happy heart” syndrome, with underreported features and prognostic implications”
Thomas Stiermaier, author of the study
What is “happy heart syndrome”?
The study published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology a registry of 2 thousand 482 people with broken heart syndrome. Stressors can also cause the problem, which causes temporary changes in the shape of the heart and is more common in women.
According to the results of the study, in rare cases, the so-called “emotional triggers” of TTS, that is, those that cause the syndrome, they occur with joyous events and occur more frequently among men. Among the positive triggers, the following were found:
- family celebrations
- Birthday
- White
- Other
- receive good news
- artistic performances in public
- Holidays
- Win a prize
Is being excessively happy just as risky as being stressed?
Although the Harvard Medical School He says more research is needed in larger numbers of patients, as the short-term and long-term outcomes appeared similar regardless of whether people had the broken or happy heart syndrome.
“Las emotionsboth positive and negative, are an inescapable part of everyday life that can negatively affect heart health in general”, say the experts, who claim to be working to identify the differences between the two syndromes.
What are the health risks of “happy heart syndrome”?
Thomas Stiermaier and colleagues analyzed the frequency, clinical features, and prognostic implications of positive emotional stressors. For the analysis, the patients were categorized according to the type of triggering factor of the Takotsubo syndrome in: physical, emotional or without identifiable trigger.
Emotional triggers were classified as “broken hearts” if they were negative emotional events and “hearts happy” if they were positive. In patients with TTS preceded by emotional triggers, there were mostly negative events (95.9%), while only the 4.1% presented positive triggers.
Hospital complications among patients with positive triggers were defined as:
Positive emotional triggers can also trigger syndrome de Takotsubo in 1.5% of cases. These patients are more often men.
Despite presenting a similar prognosis in this study, the authors highlight the need to generate additional data to explore whether the lower rate of events observed in the happy heart syndrome could acquire statistical significance in a larger sample.