Speed Reading — Level 1 — 300 wpm 

Now do this put-the-text-back-together activity.

This is the text (if you need help).

Scientists say happy things can also make us brokenhearted. A broken heart is a real illness. It's not just sadness we feel. We get something called broken heart syndrome because of stress, and during bad times, such as relationship breakups, deaths in a family, or the loss of a job. The medical name for this is Takotsubo Syndrome (TTS). People can get it when happy things happen. Doctors have called it "happy heart syndrome".

The study is in the European Heart Journal. Dr Jelena Ghadri analysed data from 1,750 patients with TTS from nine countries. She found that 20 of these had TTS because of a happy event. The patients had heart problems after birthdays, weddings, favourite sports teams winning, and the birth of grandchildren. Dr Ghadri said our body thinks happy and sad events are similar, so both can result in Takotsubo Syndrome.

Back to the happy heart lesson.

More Activities