2016 has been a whirlwind of a year in which we have seen many different people come and go. The world was shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia from the "Star Wars" series) at the young age of 60. As we continued to mourn, we woke the next morning to find out that her mother, Debbie Reynolds had shortly followed suit. According to Todd Fisher's interview with Reuters, she suffered a stroke while planning her daughter's funeral and her body could not take the stress of the loss. This begs the question, can you die of a broken heart?
After a bit of research, one will discover that this is an actual medical condition known as Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy. Felix Elwort, of the University of Wisconsin, has spent the last 13 years working on this phenomenon and there is still much work to be done. As he puts it, "You can almost catch death from your Spouse (or loved one), it's not a coincidence, it's an effect (Cassata)." It appears that with the sudden stress and surge of hormones, especially in the elderly, can cause a sudden heart attack or heart attack like episode. Their old age simply cannot handle the stress. The American Heart association has discovered that many people misdiagnose this as your typical heart attack (Cassata). However, in most of these cases, there is no sign of blocked arteries or significant heart damage. Dr. Reynolds of NYU conducted a study and found that the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our fight or flight response, plays a large role in this (Cassata). There is little that can be done, aside from trying to live a stress-free life before the person you love passes away.
In Debbie Reynolds' case, put in the stress of her and Carrie's rocky past, her old age/weak health and Carrie's struggles with drugs, and you have a perfect storm for death. It is on record that she had suffered previous medical issues throughout the year, further adding to the weakness and stress that she was under. It is important that we are there for all of the people in our lives and tell the people you love how much they mean to you before it's too late.
