Women are more vulnerable to suffering from a “broken heart” than men, researchers say. The good news is that it probably will not kill you.
In the first national study of its kind, researchers at the University of Arkansas looked at rates of “broken heart syndrome” — when a sudden shock or prolonged stress causes heart attack-like symptoms or heart failure — and found that it overwhelmingly affects women.
Women are at least seven times more likely than men to suffer the syndrome, and older women are at greater risk than younger ones, according to data presented at the American Heart Association conference in Orlando on Dec. 7.
“It’s the only cardiac condition where there’s such a female preponderance,” Dr. Abhiram Prasad, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist who was not associated with the study, told the AP. Heart attack and heart disease, of course, strike men more often and earlier in life than women.
Broken heart syndrome can happen in response to shocking or suddenly emotional events — both positive ones like winning the lottery, or negative ones like a car accident or the unexpected death of a loved one.
1. vulnerable adj.
易受害的 (yi4 shou4 hai4 de5)
例: Polar bears are vulnerable to global warming because of the increasingly shrinking Arctic ice.
2. preponderance n.
優勢；多數 (you1 shi4; duo1 shu4)
例: There is a preponderance of tigers in the forest.
3. response n.
回應 (hui2 ying4)
例: People are up in arms after hearing the president’s response to the crisis.