Palisades Fire Could Cause Broken Heart Syndrome and Death

The Business Block Building after the fire.

So many healthy elderly Pacific Palisades residents have died this past year after the January 7 Palisades Fire. Why? Was it the stress of losing their home of 40, 50, 60 or even more years? Was it moving into an unfamiliar place with none of their belongings and losing their long-time neighbors?

The Journal of the American Heart Association published a May 14, 2025 article “The Risk of Death or Complications from Broken Heart Syndrome Was High from 2016-2020.” Could this be the answer for all those deaths after the fire?

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, aka Broken Heart, is a temporary heart condition typically triggered by intense emotional or physical stress. Often mimicking the symptoms of a heart attack, it causes a portion of the heart to enlarge and pump ineffectively. The condition is believed to result from a surge of stress hormones, and it is frequently associated with traumatic life events.

This short-term failure of the heart muscle can be fatal.

“Takotsubo cardiomyopathy may be misdiagnosed as a heart attack because the symptoms and test results are similar,” the article notes click here.

An analysis showed:

• People older than age 61 had the highest incidence rates of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. However, there was a 2.6 to 3.25 times higher incidence of this condition among adults ages 46-60 compared to those ages 31-45 during the study period.
• White adults had the highest rate of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (0.16%), followed by Native American adults (0.13%) and Black adults (0.07%).
• Takotsubo cardiomyopathy was found to be more common in women in this analysis. However, men with the condition were twice as likely to die.
• In addition, socioeconomic factors, including median household income, hospital size and health insurance status, varied significantly.

In a Denmark 10-year study, those who had high levels of grief over a loss were more likely to experience Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Those individuals described themselves as feeling emotionally numb, that life is meaningless, experienced difficult in accepting loss and experienced confusion over identity.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Researchers can’t pinpoint broken heart syndrome causes, but they believe a stressful event like a divorce, car accident or job loss can cause it. When you react to physical or emotional stress, your body releases stress hormones in your blood. Experts think that these hormones temporarily interfere with your heart’s function.”

Stress examples the Cleveland Clinic gave: grief from death of a loved one or other large or meaningful loss (relationship, home, money or a beloved pet); traumatic events like accidents or earthquakes (or fires); intense fear; and extreme anger.

Symptoms include sudden, severe chest pain; shortness of breath; weakening of the left ventricle of your heart; irregular heartbeat; low blood pressure; heart palpitations and fainting.

This was my home on Radcliffe with the garage still standing on January 8.