Can You Really Be Scared To Death? Heart Fact #21

Today, after school, Logan and I stopped in our building activity room for a few minutes to play pool. He was having a blast until he slowly back away from the table and over to me. I'd never seen him scared before! He said there was a monster and it was scary. I convinced him there was no monster by crawling under the pool table and inspecting it. He seemed satisfied with my inspection but was ready to stop playing and go home.

Even though he wasn't terrified, it made me think of the old saying: "you scared me to death!" I wondered if you could, in fact, be scared to death.

Um.

You can!

Didn't think it was true, but this article presents quite a bit of research to support the theory: "this work suggests that death could happen in the wake of any shocking emotion, from intense joy at finding out a long-lost son is still alive, to deep anger at the betrayal of a loved one. Hypothetically, that means we're all at risk. But since millions of us engage in scary movies, haunted houses and rush hour traffic every year, it's hard to imagine that getting scared to death is a real threat, and both Samuels and the researchers at Johns Hopkins acknowledge that the risk of sudden death from fear or any emotion is low."

Before you find yourself in a hyper-emotional or terrifying situation, take care of your heart to increase your odds. If you do find yourself in a bad situation, be cool like this little guy...