GammaWaif wrote:

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hmcclungiii wrote:

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AFAIK, it is completely harmless, just scares the shit out of you.

I believe that is in error. Deep fear can cause heart attacks. I know cuz the place I own I bought as a probate and the lady who lived here before, died as a result of a heart attack, provoked by the Northridge earthquake.

Can You Be Scared to Death?

We say we're "scared to death" or "scared stiff" -- but can that actually happen? An article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine describes various stories, some of dubious historicity, of people who dropped dead from strong emotions. The Roman emperor Nerva (A.D. 30-98) died in a fit of anger at a senator who had offended him. A 13th century pope, Innocent IV, is said to have died of grief after the overthrow of his army. Some American patriots reportedly died of happiness after learning that General Cornwallis's army had been defeated at Yorktown.

The study's author, G. L. Engel, also collected 170 contemporary accounts of sudden death attributed to disruptive life events including: death of someone close; threat of the death of someone close; grief; during mourning or on an anniversary; losing status or self-esteem; threat of injury; after the threat is over; and even death upon a reunion, or happy ending.

An article titled "The Brain-Heart Connection" outlines some of the plausible mechanisms explaining why strong emotions can cause death: Essentially, the nervous system can be stimulated -- as a result of a life-threatening stressor -- in such a way as to cause a heart attack and death. Plenty of experimental evidence in animals has shown this happens.

Another study examined 3,015 people aged 70 to 79 to see whether those who were more anxious were more likely to die. They found a racial difference: Anxiety was a predictor of death in black people, but not in whites.

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