*bump* Have been trying to read round this myself but not found anything too enlightening and reassuring.

I am of the current persuasion that any sudden shock could cause this - even in my 22 year old seemingly healthy heart

Okay, this clinical phenomenon is more commonly known as broken heart syndrome and has been dramatized through film history in the context of people grasping their heart in response to tragic news or traumatic experience.

The condition is brought about by acute stress and results in temporary left ventricular morphology or changes to its shape, causing a transient acute coronary syndrome. It is, however, reversible with no residual or late effects. Prognosis is excellent.

Now that we have discussed the ramifications of such a premise, if you believe that this condition can somehow place you at risk because you are under significant stress, you need to refrain from thinking that absolutely anything is possible and begin guiding your contemplations by what is actually probable.

Persons with health anxiety feel compelled to investigate the furthest extent of risk that could befall them and in doing so, actually come to believe that it subsequently is possible. The relative state of risk becomes unbridled such that even the most remote of circumstances come within reach as they discover them by perusing the internet.

The condition being discussed here has no relevant association to the presence of vagus nerve-induced palpitations as a consequence of stress and anxiety.

Best regards,

Rutheford Rane, MD (ret.)