The link between stress and heart disease, from the December 2013 Harvard Women's Health Watch
There's no question that stress can exert real health effects throughout the body—including the heart. People who've received traumatic news, like the death of a child, have, in rare cases, suffered immediate heart attacks. The condition is called "broken heart syndrome." It's much more common in women than men, even in those with no history of heart disease, says Dr. Deepak Bhatt, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Integrated Interventional Cardiovascular Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
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