Heartbreak Hotel

Take your heartache seriously.

Even more reason to take your heart ache seriously- “broken heart syndrome” (aka takotsubo cardiomyopathy or stress-induced cardiomyopathy) is on the rise.  The rates are increasing especially in women aged 50-74 (for reasons yet unclear), it mimics a heart attack and has real physical changes in the heart structure.

Although the gut-brain connection seems to be taking the cultural awareness lead recently, the heart-brain connection is also  in theThe brain and the heart are interconnected.  We learned in residency about the increased risk for depression in patients with cardiac illness 1/4 cardiac patients suffer from depression and adults with depression often develop heart disease…we also are finding that well regulated blood pressure is associated with reduced likelihood to develop cognitive impairments.  The American Heart Association since 2015 has been uriging doctors to more actively monitor and intervene with patients with underlying depression or bipolar illness, as strong correlations between future heart disease are shown. 

While we wait for more scientific evidence, its clear that there is value in treating , as for most people this is a treatable 

When you enter therapy or a medication evaluation with a willingness to open your heart (sorry, couldn’t resist) you’ve already started the process to recovery.  The stressors or loss won’t go away, but we can lower our reactions to them so that the toxic effects (of the events compounded by our fight against them) don’t literally break our hearts.