When patients are rushed to hospital for chest pain, it is more often than not a case of fat blocking the arteries - a problem fixed by surgery.
But in some rare cases, a patient may be suffering from a condition whose name is more likely to be found in a love song than on a doctor's clipboard: broken heart syndrome (BHS).
It is just as painful but often leaves no trace in the arteries. The heart's left ventricle is swollen like a balloon, and for a short while the heart stops beating for no apparent physiological reason - a condition called takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
Takotsubo is the Japanese term for 'octopus trap', which is what the swollen ventricle looks like. Yet most patients who have this survive, and the symptoms go away on their own.
Doctors don't even know what is happening until they consult the patient's history. Often, people with BHS have suffered tremendous grief, such as losing a loved one. This proves that casual phrases like 'broken heart' may have more scientific basis than people think.
Broken heart syndrome is not the only example of emotional metaphors being bolstered by scientific research, which reinforce how interconnected our minds and bodies are.