'Octopus pot' syndrome: why a broken heart can be as bad as cardiac arrest

Name: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Also known as: Takotsubo syndrome. And what does “takotsubo” mean? It means “octopus pot” in Japanese. I am none the wiser. Is it known as anything else? Stress cardiomyopathy or “broken heart syndrome”. That’s better. Symptoms? Chest pain, breathlessness, sudden collapse. Pretty similar to a heart attack, actually. Prognosis: Well, that’s the thing. It used to be thought that it was scary but mostly harmless. Now research shows that it can scar and weaken the heart muscles. So, you can really die of a broken heart? Perhaps. OK, so which dating site funded this spurious research? The British Heart Foundation. Excerpt from The Guardian.