Can a Broken Heart Trigger Parkinson’s Disease?

Did you know that research of women with depression has found “that on average, the hippocampus was 9% to 13% smaller in depressed women compared with those who were not depressed?” And that the effects of depression can accumulate.

“The more bouts of depression a woman had, the smaller the hippocampus. Stress, which plays a role in depression, may be a key factor here, since experts believe stress can suppress the production of new neurons (nerve cells) in the hippocampus.”

Heartbreak can often lead to depression. Heartbreak happens for many reasons, a breakup, the loss of a parent or child. I consider heartbreak, the stress from it, and depression to be interwoven.

In December of 2013, I was 38 years old and diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s disease. As a person with the disease, I have typically found myself reading more about new therapies and treatments in the pipeline.

But what causes Parkinson’s is just as important.

“When considering the connection between health problems and depression, an important question to address is which came first, the medical condition or the mood changes.”

In my case, depression came first. Then Parkinson’s. When I was diagnosed, I finally sought professional help to help me emotionally process what the diagnosis meant for me and my future. I should have sought help years earlier.

Though I have considered many possible causes, I never wondered if heartbreak triggered my early onset Parkinson’s. Until I read about the Gernsheimer twins (more on them in a minute).

Like many other neurological diseases, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, researchers have ideas about what causes them but no definitive answer. The cause of Depression is also elusive.

This is from the Michael J. Fox Foundations’ website: “Researchers believe that in most people, Parkinson’s is caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors.”

Often when we think of environmental factors, we think of pollution, exposure to chemicals in the environment, pesticides on our foods, or living near an oil refinery, and the like. We usually don’t consider stress or social factors.

Environmental factors can be physical and social. Both factors create stress and have a profound impact on your well-being. Here are some social-environmental factors that we don’t often consider.

Social stigma (such as coming out as gay or lesbian)

A lack of social support

History of abuse

Family discord during childhood

Early loss of a parent

Poverty

Lack of spirituality or sense of community

Lack of meaningful work or hobbies

Toxic relationships

Lack of self-care and/or relaxation

We know that having a broken heart is a stressful life event and that it can lead to depression, but can it lead to Parkinson’s disease?

This is a complicated question without a simple yes or no answer. Still, there’s a story of two identical twin brothers that’s fascinating. Because it suggests that mental health could be a factor in developing Parkinson’s disease.

In this story, we have two identical twin brothers, Jeff and Jack Gernsheimer, but only one has Parkinson’s disease. If genetics were the sole determining factor for Parkinson’s disease, and since they share the exact same genes, both brothers would be expected to develop it. But only one, in this case did, and that was Jack.

If genetics combined with exposure to environmental toxins, then wouldn’t they both have Parkinson’s? Not in their case. Interestingly, both brothers grew up together and, as adults, only live one mile apart. So, they have been exposed to the same physical environment.

One significant difference in their lives is that they and researchers have identified, which is grief. Jack’s son Gabe tragically died playing Russian roulette when he was 14 years old with his father’s gun. Jack blames himself.

“To the twins, the “pressure cooker” was the way Jack dealt with stress. Most grievously the loss of Gabe, helps explain Jack’s added health burden today: the Parkinson’s, the glaucoma, the prostate cancer. Jeff said those might be “physical manifestations” of the different ways they handled stress. “Jack internalizes more than I do,” he said.”

The potential damage to our health relates to how we internally process our experiences, particularly stressful life events like heartbreak. Suppose we don’t know how to process trauma or stressful life events in a healthy way.

In this case, damage to our brain health may not just be temporary but permanent. So, it’s essential that we learn how to process stressful life events in a healthy way.

“So recurrent or persistent depression does more harm to the hippocampus the more you leave it untreated. This largely settles the question of what comes first: the smaller hippocampus or the depression? The damage to the brain comes from recurrent illness.

Hickie, who is also a national mental health commissioner, said it meant identifying and treating depression effectively when it first occurred was vital to prevent this damage, particularly among teenagers and young adults.”

This is why you should seek help sooner than later!

Depression Is All Consuming Making It Hard To Think Clearly

I never really thought about a long-term implication of my depression, nor do I blame myself for my lack of knowledge. The hippocampus studies were published years after my serious bouts of depression, and we can’t know everything.

Though I do wish I knew more about the importance of getting help. Anything that would have woken me up to find the coping skills, that I now have, necessary to make it through life’s most stressful times.

I like to believe that I would have sought therapy to help me quickly get over the heartbreakers I was crying about. But I didn’t. In my mind, I was strong enough to power through, just like I had so many other times in life. I had always made it through the worst situations.

“According to Steve Cole, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, the relevant aspect of “environment” in terms of the twins might be something more interior and personal. Cole is interested in “the environment we create in our heads” — not what literally happens, but how the individual experiences what happens. “That is the most interesting aspect of the story of the twins,” he told me recently. “Their experiential environments.”

That we go on to develop serious health issues due to depression will only happen to some of us, not all of us, is enough for me to want to know. The truth is many people will power through and never develop serious health problems, while others will not be so fortunate.

Some of us no doubt will be impacted by our broken hearts and depression in profound ways. In ways that we don’t yet fully comprehend. Complicating the matter is that we have our own ways of handling stress and depression, then there are genes, environmental factors, and biology.

Even if we are genetically prone to a disease, like Jeff, the other twin who didn’t develop Parkinson’s, it doesn’t mean that we will develop it. The twins offer us an example of how important mental health is to overall health. In their case, how each brother manages stressful life events may be the critical difference.

That depression can shrink the size of the hippocampus, but if dealt with sooner than later these impacts can be reversed shows us the urgency of getting professional help right away.

No matter the kind of therapy you decide upon, it’s critical that you connect with your therapist. I went with cognitive behavior therapy and was on a waiting list. While I waited, I tried another therapist and didn’t connect at all with him. Be patient and smart, it’s challenging to find a great therapist and/or support group, but it’s so worth it.

It is critical to learn the skills and develop the tools to minimize and manage stressful life events. Armed with these tools, we have the coping skills that help us throughout our lives whenever a stressful life event occurs. The sooner we arm ourselves with these tools, the happier and healthier our lives can be.