People with heart disease or arteries hardened by high blood pressure, tobacco or cholesterol are more at risk of dying of fear. But everyone can be affected by this phenomenon.
- The Celtic festival of Samhain, whose origins date back more than 2,500 years, is considered the ancestor of Halloween.
- This tradition has particularly taken root in the United States.
Monsters, strange creatures, witches, vampires… While many celebrated Halloween this weekend, is it possible to die of fear? “Yesanswer it Dr. Martin Samuelsneurologist and director of the interdisciplinary neuroscience program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (USA). There is undeniable evidence that one can die of fear in certain very specific circumstances.”.
People with heart disease more at risk
“If you have heart disease or hardened arteries due to high blood pressure, smoking, cholesterol, etc., the chances of dying from sudden shock increasedetails Dr. Philip Lee, geriatrician. Either from a heart attack or a stroke“. The physiological mechanism linked to fear is as follows: when an individual is frightened, there is a huge adrenaline rush in his brain. His heart beats faster and blood rushes to his muscles. is an instinctive defense reflex of the body that can cause ventricular fibrillation.This means that the heart does not beat properly and that – in fact – the blood supply in the body is dysfunctional.
This can be deadly, especially if the ventricular fibrillation is combined with another effect of fear: the release of calcium in the heart. “Calcium rushes into the heart cells causing the heart muscle to contract sharply“, explains the Dr. Robert Glatteran emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, USA. This eventually leads to a drop in blood pressure and without blood in the brain, you pass out. It’s not just people with heart disease, but they’re definitely at higher risk.”.
broken heart syndrome
Another cause that can scare you to death is broken heart syndrome (or Takotsubo syndrome). “Sudden shock or grief causes heart failure and you die“, says Dr. Philip Lee. It is a very rare syndrome but can affect anyone, even the youngest.”I have cases of children without any heart disease who died on amusement park rides“, says Dr. Martin Samuels.
In the past, cases of people dying of fear have already been identified by doctors. Nevertheless, these reassure: it really takes a very frightening and unexpected event, like a tsunami, for this to happen. On the other hand, “people’s conscious conception of their fear is not correlated at all with the actual reaction of the nervous systemconcludes Martin Samuels.
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