Scared to death
Earlier this year, Larry Emanuel Whitfield of Charlotte, North Carolina broke into a woman's home and literally scared her to death. Mary Parnell, 79, died of a fear- and stress-induced heart attack. Scientific American asked Martin A. Samules, chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, to weigh in on the story. From SciAm:
"Suspect in case of Gaston County woman 'scared to death' pleads not guilty, faces federal trial" (Gaston Gazette)
How does that (someone get scared to death)?"Can a person be scared to death?" (SciAm)
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...
What other emotional states besides fear could lead to these fatal heart rhythms? Any strong positive or negative emotions such as happiness or sadness. There are people who have died in intercourse or in religious passion. There was a case of a golfer who hit a hole in one, turned to his partner and said, "I can die now"—and then he dropped dead. A study in Germany found an increase of sudden cardiac deaths on the days that the German soccer team was playing in the World Cup. For about seven days after the 9/11 terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon there was an increase of sudden cardiac death among New Yorkers.
"Suspect in case of Gaston County woman 'scared to death' pleads not guilty, faces federal trial" (Gaston Gazette)
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You accidentally a word out - should be "How does that happen (someone get scared to death)?"
I thought the main cause of being scared to death was the result of a Tingler (spinal parasites).
Larry Emanuel Whitfield is one ugly son-of-a-bitch. I'll bet.
My friend's mother had a heart attack because of her husband yelling at her. Nothing else, just yelling. The stress and fear was enough to give her a heart attack and send her to the hospital. Her fear was rather justified, since he's a karate instructor and an incredibly scary bastard, but that still surprised me.
Needless to say, they're now divorced.
There was a Stuff You Should know podcast about getting scared to death recently. The article that went with it is also interesting: http://health.howstuffworks.com/scared-to-death2.htm
Reminds me of fainting goats:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg
The umbrella trick at :50 is great.
That hole-in-one story smells like an urban legend to me.
It's just another cult scene of Man Bites Dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj25PN2EPVE
That was fascinating. I would have to say my flight response is intact and functioning very well, overriding my fight response in almost every situation.
I have a very strong tendency to start running if I'm startled. I can't help it - it's an almost involuntary response - like something else takes over. I just run - pick a direction and go. It's funny because when I have my wits about me I like to brag about what I would do if such-and-such happened. I have proved myself wrong over and over again. :-)
so this is a follow up to the viagra post really ;)
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE TINGLER IS LOOSE IN THE THEATER!
anyone ever actually die of that?
Takuan, as long as you keep screaming, you'll be okay. Sorry, Tingler joke.
Also, if you have Long QT Syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_QT_syndrome), you have a much higher risk of being scared to death.
Reminds me of:
Harry Meadows was a pensioner and accidental killer.
In 1961, 87-year-old Harry Meadows, a resident at the Haslemere Home for the Elderly in Great Yarmouth, England, achieved late-in-life notoriety when he accidentally killed another 3 residents of his care home by dressing up as the grim reaper and peering through the residents' lounge window whilst holding a scythe.
The year before Harry's performance, another resident of the same home, the then 81 year old Gladys Elton, for reasons best known to herself, had conceived the idea of performing a striptease for her fellow residents of the home; unfortunately such was the effect of Elton's performance that it caused the death of one resident by way of a cardiac arrest and the treatment for shock of five other residents.
The home was forced to shut as a result of these two incidents.
Source
*Brewer's Rogues, Villains & Eccentrics Page 240. ISBN 0-304-35728-6 - edited by William Donaldson.
This is how Hattie Carroll (of the Bob Dylan song) died. Though the song makes it sound like she was beaten to death on the spot, in fact she was verbally abused and struck, whereupon she collapsed, was taken to hospital and died.
That doesn't change the fact that William Zantzinger was sentenced to only six months and a $500. fine for her murder, and was a vicious bastard for most of his life.
From the post:
"but the problem, of course, is that in the modern world there is very limited advantage of the fight-or-flight response"
Remind me to leave this guy behind (or at least use him for bait) during the next zombie outbreak.