sTress carDiomyoPaTHy
Accurate diagnosis is key to
HealingBroken Hearts
THROUGHOUT THE AGES, poets have given metaphorical meaning to the human heart. The heart, they say, holds the essence of a person; a kind person is softhearted, and a brave one, lionhearted. The heart aches when one suffers a loss, and it sings with joy when something wonderful happens. Every human emotion seems to find expression through the heart. Modern medical science has told us something different. The heart, we have learned, is simply an organ, a muscle composed of soft tissue. It is nevertheless a vital organ, simple in structure but complex, even wondrous, in function. The healthy heart is a workhorse, an engine that never rests, its chambers and valves pumping life-sustaining blood throughout the body in a constant, rhythmic choreography. The heart is so essential that we ascertain the presence of life by the presence of the heartbeat. Encasing it within a bony cage of ribs, vertebrae and sternum, the body protects the heart, in an acknowledgement of this importance, and also vulnerability. Hearts, cardiologists tell us, do not break. They weaken, they fail, their rhythms go awry and they become damaged when their own blood supply is compromised. But hearts don’t actually break. Or do they?
8 I HouseCall I Volume VI Issue 1