Can a person be scared to death?
Our bodies have a natural protective mechanism called the fight-or-flight response in which our autonomic nervous system responds to life-threatening situations by increasing heart rate, increasing blood flow to muscles, slowing digestion, and dilating pupils. These increase in order to give us the chance to out run or fight off danger.
The autonomic nervous system uses the hormone adrenaline to send signals to various parts of our body to active the response. This chemical is toxic in large amounts and can damage our internal organs. Almost all sudden deaths are caused by damage to the heart because almost no other organ would fail fast enough to cause sudden death.
When the heart is flooded with too much adrenaline, the chemical lands on the receptors of the cardiac muscle causing calcium channels in the membranes of the those cells to open. The calcium ions rush in and cause the heart to contract. Because there is an overwhelming amount of calcium, it keeps pouring in and the heart won’t be able to relax. The heart then goes into abnormal rhythms that are not compatible with life causing death. The most common of these deadly rhythms is ventricular fibrillation, which is when the ventricles vibrate in a way that impedes their ability to deliver blood to the body.
While someone who is predisposition to heart disease is most likely to suffer a risk, it can happen to someone at any age and even someone who is considered healthy. If doesn’t just have to be fear, it can be any strong emotion such as happiness or sadness. For example, after 9/11 there was an increase of sudden cardiac deaths in New Yorkers.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scared-to-death-heart-attack
My response:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scared-to-death-heart-attack
My response:
While I have heard the expression of being "scared to death", I never knew that it could actually happen. I have also heard of people dying of sadness after their spouse passed away. What I personally find the most interesting is that someone could be so happy that they would die. I find that to be incredible; yet, after learning about our hearts it makes perfect sense. Our hearts pumps vital oxygen to our brains which tells our bodies how to run. If our heart stops for just a few seconds and our brains do not receive oxygen, it could result in brain death, which is the legal definition of death that refers to the irreversible end of all brain activity, or death.
posted by Sarah @ 7:45 PM
3 Comments:
That makes me not want to walk up behind someone and scare them anymore. I understand that it could happen though, especially if the chemicals associated with fear are toxic in large amounts. People can definitely freak out or calm down on their own so I wonder if they ever save their own lives by calming down or anything. When people are continually stressed over a long period of time, it wears on their health, so that chemical is probably toxic too. Obviously, a large burst of anything toxic would kill you. Fortunately, I don't think most people run into situations that scare them to that extreme point very often- but I guess it only takes once. What if someone has the hiccups so you scare them but they die because you scared them? Is that involuntary manslaughter?
I never really thought about the literal meaning of being scared to death. It is usually just a habit to say, not a true statement. To hear that it could actually kill you is scary! Most people wont just die from being happy or sad, because they don't have a heart condition. Next time I say that I will be happy that it isn't actually true for me!
I find it interesting that this trite phrase has some clear anatomical truth. This information reminds me of an idea I discussed in my response to an article about hiccups: one thing can be used for good, helpful purposes in one circumstance and can be harmful, and even life-threatening in another. Adrenaline, for example, is used by our bodies to increase our heart rate and blood flow so that we can respond more quickly to fearful situations. However, as this article shows, adrenaline, if too much released, can affect the heart in such a way as to cause death! Thankfully, most of the time our bodies can properly control adrenaline amounts, and the cases of people being "scared to death" are rare.
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