BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

As Halloween draws even closer take note; people can actually be scared to death.

It only happens on rare occasions, but it turns out people who appear perfectly fit and healthy can go into full cardiac arrest when they are frightened and die.

Dr. Martin A. Samuels of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston has collected reports of people dying suddenly in muggings and break-ins where they haven’t been touched, and children dying on amusement park rides. Other studies have found sudden deaths occurring near the 1991 Iraqi missile attacks on Tel Aviv; and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in Washington and New York.

"The unifying factor is that the nervous system controls the heart and it can do a lot of damage," said Samuels, according to WSJ.com.

According to Boston.com , researchers have, determined that stress hormones called catecholamines in the heart bring on the release of calcium into its cells and making them contract. The heart begins to have abnormal rhythms and then goes into cardiac arrest, according to Samuels.

Dr. Samuels said that older women make up 90 percent of the cases of dying of fright, the ”broken heart syndrome,” ABC News reported. He said most major cities average about one sudden death a day. Medical experts call the event stress cardiomyopathy, because it usually happens right after an intense emotional experience.

Doctors named the condition "broken-heart syndrome" because it often affects people who have lost their spouse or a family member. However, the circumstances causing the attack are not always tragic. For example, a Johns Hopkins patient suffered stress cardiomyopathy from a birthday surprise party.

The attack rarely reoccurs, as only about a five percent of patients have more than one event. Halloween should not be a concern, because it seems to take a truly frightening experience to cause the condition in most hearts.

On Election Day, however, we can offer no promises.