The death of Debbie Reynolds just one day after the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher, raises the question, can you really die from a broken heart? 

 

Reynold’s son, Todd Fisher says his mother  was under a lot of emotion and stress from the loss of her daughter, and he believes it triggered her death.

 

Doctors say there is a real phenomenon called “broken heart syndrome.” The medical term  is stress cardiomyopathy and it involves stress hormones such as adrenaline. 

 

According to Dr. Dina Sparano, UH Cleveland Medical Center Cardiologist, “in an extremely stressful, especially a sudden stressful state, there is a large amount of release of these hormones and there is a possible toxicity that they can pose to the heart muscle rendering it weak.”

 

Stress brought on by grief or anxiety can lead to sudden intense chest pain. It can also be caused by physical stress on the body. The symptoms can be similar to a heart attack and can lead to heart failure. It’s much more common in women than men and typically occurs in women over age 50.

 

Doctors say most people can recover from broken heart syndrome.