SCARED TO DEATH: A terrifying situation can lead to fatal heart rhythms.
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A Charlotte, N.C., man was charged with first-degree murder of a 79-year-old woman whom police said he scared to death. In an attempt to elude cops after a botched bank robbery, the Associated Press reports that 20-year-old Larry Whitfield broke into and hid out in the home of Mary Parnell. Police say he didn't touch Parnell but that she died after suffering a heart attack that was triggered by terror. Can the fugitive be held responsible for the woman's death? Prosecutors said that he can under the state's so-called felony murder rule, which allows someone to be charged with murder if he or she causes another person's death while committing or fleeing from a felony crime such as robbery—even if it's unintentional.
But, medically speaking, can someone actually be frightened to death? We asked Martin A. Samuels, chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows. Thanks to AHCJ_Pia for the story suggestion.]
Is it possible to literally be scared to death?
Absolutely, no question about it.
Really? How does that happen?
The body has a natural protective mechanism called the fight-or-flight response, which was originally described by Walter Cannon [chairman of Harvard University's physiology department from 1906 to 1942]. If, in the wild, an animal is faced with a life-threatening situation, the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system responds by increasing heart rate, increasing blood flow to the muscles, dilating the pupils, and slowing digestion, among other things. All of this increases the chances of succeeding in a fight or running away from, say, an aggressive jaguar. This process certainly would be of help to primitive humans, but the problem, of course, is that in the modern world there is very limited advantage of the fight-or-flight response. There is a downside to revving up your nervous system like this.
How can the fight-or-flight response lead to death?
The autonomic nervous system uses the hormone adrenaline, a neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, to send signals to various parts of the body to activate the fight-or-flight response. This chemical is toxic in large amounts; it damages the visceral (internal) organs such as the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. It is believed that almost all sudden deaths are caused by damage to the heart. There is almost no other organ that would fail so fast as to cause sudden death. Kidney failure, liver failure, those things don't kill you suddenly.
What exactly happens in the heart when it's flooded with too much adrenaline?
Adrenaline from the nervous system lands on receptors of cardiac myocytes (heart-muscle cells), and this causes calcium channels in the membranes of those cells to open. Calcium ions rush into the heart cells and this causes the heart muscle to contract. If it's a massive overwhelming storm of adrenaline, calcium keeps pouring into the cells and the muscle just can't relax.
There is this specially adapted system of muscle and nerve tissue in the heart—the sinoatrial (SA) node, the atrioventricular node, and the Purkinje fibers—which sets the rhythm of the heart. If this system is overwhelmed with adrenaline, the heart can go into abnormal rhythms that are not compatible with life. If one of those is triggered, you will drop dead.
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25 Comments
Add CommentIt's called a, "Tingler."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSciAm, I'm disappointed with you for possibly the first time. You can't "interview" or "ask" a dead person anything. If you're quoting their writings, just say so. Walter Cannon died in 1945, and your own link refers to him as a "notable Unitarian" http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/cannon_walter.html.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have no opinion on his religious affiliation, but I'd rather get my science advice from a notable PHYSIOLOGIST, and it's just as easy to call him that http://the-aps.org/about/pres/introwbc.htm
Furthermore (and not surprisingly, since your "interviewee's" understanding of the science would be at least 64 years out-of-date), it's the adrenal glands, not the nervous system, that release significant amounts of adrenaline (now called epinephrine) to begin the fight-or-flight set of responses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epinephrine
Your dead "interviewee" didn't even get the vocabulary right. I'm sure there are abundant resources available to demonstrate a current and accurate scientific opinion regarding death from fright.
Please get the science right.
Oops. You did interview a different source, but it's still the adrenal glands that provoke the fight-or-flight response.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"The autonomic nervous system uses the hormone ADRENALINE, a neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, to send signals to various parts of the body to activate the fight-or-flight response."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article mentions adrenaline clearly in referance to the trigger for the flight or fight reflex try to read before you complain
the nervous system uses it it never said it releases it
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUnder tort law, in order to prove responsibility for damages, you must show: 1. Duty; 2. Breech of duty; 3. Causation; and 4. Damages
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe threshold of proof requisite of proving a case in tort law is the "preponderance of the evidence".
Causation in tort law must be inclusive of "proximate" cause. That is, the plaintiff must show, by the preponderance of the evidence, that the defendants actions causing the damages in question were the "reasonably foreseeable" consequences of his actions.
The standard of proof in a criminal case, as in this one, is much higher such that all of the elements of the crime must be proven "beyond a reasonable doubt." Further, the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment implying that this amendment may nullify the First Degree Murder charge in this instance as "cruel and unusual punishment." The URL for the Wikipedia article discussing the Eighth Amendment is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
To me, in this particular instance, First Degree Murder, implying a specific and contemplative intent to comment homicide, is an patently inappropriate criminal charge that is unsupported by the evidence. A charge of manslaughter might be supported by the evidence, however.
With regard to scaring a person to death. The same may certainly occur. It doesn't have to be an elderly person either. I do not have the specific results of studies inclusive of the same. However, as I remember it, Vietnam veterans exposed to combat have a significantly higher rate of cardiovascular disease than non-combat veterans indicating that even amongst healthy courageous young men, fright and stress can litterally "scare you to death."
Danny, the article says "Adrenaline from the nervous system".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWait a minute... panic attacks, we have been assured, are not dangerous at all. That being (never simply: "that said...") said, if this article is to be believed then panic attacks are, in reality, dangerous; as all the effects described which may damage the body in its 'fight or flight' response are exactly those which are brought on by panic attacks. So panic attacks are potentially very dangerous and not ,as thought before, harmless. I must admit being previously sceptical about panic attacks being harmless. And now that I've read that one can be literally scared to death, I'll not be so complacent about panic attacks any more.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Archimedes: your analysis of the legal aspects miss the important part of the article: the discussion of the felony murder rule, a rule in practice in most states. The concept of the felony murder rule is to help discourage even non-violent felonies as such crimes CAN, in extreme circumstances such as this, lead to the death of an innocent. As the saying goes, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. That all being said, typically felony murder charges are plead down to manslaughter.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank GOD science is finally proving the spiritual truths. Lot's of people have died from a broken heart and words can hurt and bruise like a fist. And leave scars. Ask the children whose parents told them they wish they had never been born....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGee, nobody is smert as you are they??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe interview was to a Martin Samuels, not Walter Cannon. I guess your comment is a joke.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's much more convincing literature than this - there's a phenomenon called Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy which induces sudeen heart failure and arrhythmia from catecholamine secretion (epinephrine). This is typically reported as the person who gets a surprise party or bad news and drops with a cardiac arrest. Fascinating case literature on this. Typically seen in postmenopausal women. The bottom line is that there are genetic predispositions (polymorphisms) that produce more epinephrine in response to stimuli and also make the receptors in the body more sensitive - around 4 fold if memory serves me. Combine the stimulus, and aging heart and the host reponse and - bingo....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's enough trouble with this already. As we all know in the UK a person has be scared on THREE occasions, no less than that before they die.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRobbery - Guilty. Murder - Not guilty. ( I'll health in the victim commutates the sentence)
Don't tell me this man gets a 'restraining order'.
The man clearly needs a 'restraining order'.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf a person gets a shock due to fright, it will occur in less then even three seconds.Then how can adrenaline get released so quickly and then flood the heart in this less time?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe adrenal medulla which secretes adrenaline is an extension(ganglion) of a nerve so adrenaline is from the nervous system
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust wondering, can the same thing happen if an older person with some heart desease jumps into a freezing pool? I've heard that it was healthy but god only knows now adays
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi'm just wondering, can the same thing happen if lets say an older person with some heart desease jumps into a pool of freezing water?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswow i didn't know the first worked sorry haha
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScared to death? I think easily. An airplane at 30,000 feet is almost six miles high....even in free fall it takes some time to hit ground. I read that many people on that airplane will be dead before they hit ground because of heart arrythmia....I think I would be one of them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile I agree someone can be "scared" to death, the problem is proving that "beyond a reasonable doubt" in a court of law. First-degree murder is also a questionable charge for something of this manner.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting natural facts. Does the same chemical action take place in the wild when the prey gives up the fight?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHAHAHA. Oh my goodness me. I am disappointed with YOUR reading comprehension skills! Wouldn't you at least take the time to double-check before you launch into a prolonged attack? Some people just jump at any opportunity to prove someone wrong. Hilarious!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlthough this article had been quite a while ago, I thought I would point out a few errors.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTachyarrhythmias can indeed be triggered by fear, which can in some cases lead to death, but the person who has them would usually either have a cardiac channelopathy (such as long QT syndrome or Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia ) would have an acute coronary event of some sort such as a an event triggered by atherosclerosis some other kind of acute coronary event such as a vasospasm, or a mechanical issue involving hypertrophy, or dilation (I might add that these are usually caused by underlying physiological mechanisms, and are rarely deemed "idiopathic") There are people with panic disorders who live the majority of their lives without suffering from a cardiac arrest as a result of their panic disorder (which involves copious amounts of adrenaline being dumped into the body frequently.)
If none of these were present, and the person were to die, with a structurally and electrophysiologically normal heart and normal coronary arteries. I would be impressed, as it is quite a rare event. Something a long the lines of 3 in 100,000 or 0.003% (which is assumed to be caused by subtle sub-clinical physiological or structural abnormalities)
This article comes across as misleading, as it forgets to mention the plethora of underlying abnormalities that would create a substrate for "fear" to kill.
Maybe we should test the effects of "N-rays" as well on cardiac arrest, we might find some interesting results.
*sigh*
Poor show sci-am.