BehindTheMedspeak: Can you die from fright?

Long story short: Yes.

Deeply buried in an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal by Melinda Beck about risk takers are the following paragraphs:

Fear can be fatal. Martin A. Samuels, chief of neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, has collected hundreds of reports of people whose hearts have suddenly stopped during times of extreme stress or emotion.

"The heart muscles contract involuntarily in a characteristic pattern, and they don't relax again because of the huge rush of stress hormones," says Dr. Samuels, who thinks that many disaster victims may die from fear rather than injuries, although obtaining proof in autopsies is difficult.

Researchers have noted a spike in sudden cardiac deaths following earthquakes and other disasters. For example; there were triple the typical number of heart attacks at 11 Worcester, Mass., hospitals on Sept. 11, 12 and 13, 2001, immediately after the terrorist attacks, according to a 2005 study in the American Journal of Cardiology. People have also suffered sudden heart attacks at times of extreme joy or excitement — such as hitting a hole-in-one in golf or being acquitted of a crime.

And in rare cases, people have had fatal reactions to make-believe situations. One woman in Wichita, Kan., died of an apparent heart attack while watching the 2004 film "The Passion of Christ," with its crucifixion depiction, and at least two children have apparently been scared to death on amusement-park rides.

I hate it when people scare me by shouting or suddenly appearing in my peripheral vision, so much so that I ask friends to make noise when they stop by rather than suddenly entering a room where I'm reading or walking on the treadmill or whatever.

Robert Graves' famous 1929 story, "The Shout," centers on a man who has perfected the ability to shout at a person and kill them.

Just don't come 'round my place to practice on me.

Longtime readers may recall (I didn't until I looked it up) that I posted on this subject back on February 22, 2005.

You could look it up.