Diary,
Folks, believe it or not, there is such a disease called ‘broken heart syndrome’. Believe me, I’m a doc. Better yet, believe a 2021 case study on a condition called “cardiogenic shock caused by takotsubo syndrome complicated with severe anxiety,” better known as broken heart syndrome.
Shortened as takotsubo cardiomyopathy, it’s a rare stress-induced heart problem thought to be caused by extreme emotional or physical events, such as learning about the death of a loved one, winning the lottery, breaking up with a partner or lifting a heavy sofa.
It’s a condition that’s been observed primarily in women. But here’s the catch. A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in May found that the illness may be more deadly for the men who get it. Out of 200,000 patients, 83 per cent were women, but men were more than twice as likely to die from it.
It’s that last part that really turns my knobs.
If “broken heart” isn’t enough of a clue for you, this means that a man’s genetic make-up is NOT equipped to handle stressful situations. We all know women’s hearts are stronger. They have something called oestrogen. It may give them foul moods now and then, but its good effects on the heart and mind far outweigh any doldrums.
Which brings us back to menfolk. Imagine a typical couple breaking up. The woman will sob and cry for hours immediately after, while the man walks around bragging of being finally single. Six months down the line, the woman will have flushed the man completely out of her system, just as it begins to hit the dude that a crucial part of him is missing.
Soon, he’s crying into a beer bottle:
“I didn’t know how much I relied on her cooking, until I ate bread for dinner 11 nights in a row.”
“Who knew towels could smell like sunshine and comfort? Now they just smell like gym and denial.”
And the eternal classic:
“I thought I wanted freedom. Turns out I just wanted snacks handed to me while watching Man United lose 2-0 to Wolves.”
Soon, the man realises that while he once considered her “too dramatic”, now he talks to his plants and overthinks everything she posts on her WhatsApp status.
What’s worse, “Most doctors know about takotsubo, but they may think of it as a disease just affecting women, so the diagnosis might be overlooked in men,” said Dr Deepak Bhatt, a real cardiologist who was not involved in the study.
Sadly, that means that not only are more men than women dying faster of this malady, it’s more likely to be ignored or misdiagnosed in men.
That’s in addition to societal pressures that insist the boy child shouldn’t cry but should take it on the chin like a real man. Oh yes, the term “shoulder to cry on” means a man’s shoulder for a woman to cry on, not vice versa.
That said, need I explain why men shouldn’t sink too deeply into love and whatnot? Doctors, I included, will always tell you to stop smoking to avoid cancer. Or to eat healthy and exercise regularly to avoid diabetes. Now we should be warning you to avoid romantic entanglements if you want to live longer.
