When we think of a broken heart, many of us think of the cartoon broken heart with a jagged line down the middle. Obviously, our hearts don’t look like that and they can’t really break. Or can they?

In fact, you can actually have a broken heart and it’s rather dangerous. Sure, it’s not split down the middle but a real-life broken heart can have dire consequences and even prove to be fatal. Broken Heart Syndrome, also known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy and clinically called takotsubo syndrome (TTS), can happen to anyone, even seemingly healthy individuals. It can happen if a family member dies or you go through a particularly rough breakup. It could even happen with positive stress like winning the lottery. Not a good sign during this craziness.

Just this February, a woman was in the news after she nearly died from this condition. The twenty-eight-year-old woman thought she had a cold. She had difficulty walking and breathing but had to take care of her young son and go to school. Still, she decided to get help. If she had not gone to the hospital, she quite possibly could have died. Luckily, she was diagnosed and helped before anything got worse.

The doctors and medical staff that diagnosed her did remarkably well as the disorder can be misdiagnosed. Clinically, broken heart syndrome shows itself with sudden chest pain from a surge of stress hormones like adrenaline or cortisol. Assuming you’re concerned enough to go to the hospital, you may actually be misdiagnosed with a heart attack given the changes in the heart’s rhythm and symptoms. However, unlike a heart attack, the arteries in the heart are not blocked with broken heart syndrome. Instead, part of the heart (generally the left ventricle) temporarily enlarges and doesn’t pump properly. This has the potential to lead to severe heart failure and, sometimes, death. Luckily, the disease is treatable and most recover within weeks of the initial chest pain incident.

While researchers and doctors are working on better understanding broken heart syndrome, much about it is still unclear. It is thought that the surge of stress hormones may damage the heart, even temporarily. How this happens is, again, unclear and not quite understood.

Recently, the Journal of the American Heart Association published an article that found that one in six people with broken heart syndrome had some form of cancer. Researchers involved in the study and the American Heart Association recommended that broken heart syndrome should be considered in cancer patients who experience chest pain, shortness of breath, or abnormalities on their electrocardiogram (ECG) following the study. Of course, anyone familiar with research knows correlation does not equal causation and one study provides limited information. That said, this is a great start for future work.

However, even with the above information, the syndrome itself is generally treatable, indicating medical professionals and researchers are heading in the right direction. Hopefully, given the recent study last year, we will see more studies done on the matter.