万花筒 2012-09-29&10-02 “心碎”也能要人命？

 A family obituary¹ in this morning's New York Times is announcing the death of the mother of Christine Brinkley at the age of 91 says:her heart never survived losing the love of her life for her husband who predeceased by seven weeks. It's very common after the death of a longtime spouse², but the sadness also a medical condition and worst of all, could truly be fatal as it often appears to be. Our report tonight from our chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderan.

Cindy Bezon's husband Joel had been in the cardiac ICU of Maine Medical Center for three days, recovering from a heart attack. And she had a visual in a nearby waiting room.

-You are constantly waiting for someone to come out and talk to you.

-Sure.

-And you stressed hormones³ are off the charts.

-I was on urge. But I thought I was doing fine. And I thought I was handling it very well.

But she wasn't.

-I remember coming, standing⁴ by the nurse's station, talking to someone. And as I was talking, I said: well, I really feel dizzy. I remember grabbing onto a counter. I was just trying to hold on for support. At that moment, black cloud,just,curtain just came down over my eyes that I couldn't shake away. And that's the last thing that I remember.

Cindy was in full cardiac arrest, suffering from something literally⁵ called Broken-heart syndrome⁶. Ninety percent of the patients who experienced it are post menopausal women, mostly over age of 55.

We think that it is women age, their hearts and small blood vessels⁷ around their heart become more susceptible⁸ to distress⁹ hormones. So a stress that you might experience at the age of 25 when your estrogen levels are high may not have the same effect on your heart as it might when you are 65 years old.

The extreme stress of her husband's medical crisis triggered Cindy's brain to send a signal to her adrenal glands¹⁰ which released an unusual surge of stress hormones into her blood stream. That surge rushed to her heart, essentially¹¹ paralyzing part of it, causing it to bloom now like this and then shut down.

--There are cases of people dying of this condition and when I'm asked can you die of a broken heart, we absolutely say yes, you can.

Cindy and Joel both recovered. And now celebrating life's simple pleasures has taken on a new meaning.

--We don't sweat the small stuff. We live to enjoy life.

--Enjoy each other and we're grateful for every moment that we have.

This is not a heart attack. The symptoms may mimic¹² one. Heart attack is caused by blockages¹³. This is simply a case of the heart being stunned¹⁴ by all those chemicals rushing to it. It's a temporary malfunction¹⁵. And the heart usually covers completely if it's recognized in time, important thing is to recognize it. I think they are frankly¹⁶ under-recognized in this country.

One of the true enduring medical mysteries. Nancy, thank you as always.

1 obituary   

n.讣告，死亡公告；adj.死亡的

参考例句：

• The obituary records the whole life of the deceased.讣文记述了这位死者的生平。
• Five days after the letter came,he found Andersen s obituary in the morning paper.收到那封信五天后，他在早报上发现了安德森的讣告。

2 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？

3 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

6 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

7 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 susceptible   

adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的

参考例句：

• Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
• We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。

9 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

10 glands   

n.腺( gland的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a snake's poison glands 蛇的毒腺
• the sebaceous glands in the skin 皮脂腺

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

13 blockages   

n.堵塞物( blockage的名词复数 )；堵塞，阻塞

参考例句：

• The storms could increase the risks posed by river blockages. 暴风雨会增加因河道堵塞所造成的危险。 来自互联网
• An angiogram shows the location and severity of blockages in blood vessels. 冠状动脉造影能够显示血管内的阻塞位置以及阻塞的严重程度。 来自互联网

14 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

15 malfunction   

vi.发生功能故障，发生故障，显示机能失常

参考例句：

• There must have been a computer malfunction.一定是出了电脑故障。
• Results have been delayed owing to a malfunction in the computer.由于电脑发生故障，计算结果推迟了。

16 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。