Can you die of a broken heart? Science, and true love stories, suggest yes

Is it possible to be fatally lovestruck? It sounds far-fetched but it turns out the broken hearts club could be more fact than fiction.

On Wednesday football great Doug Flutie revealed via Facebook that his parents, married 55 years, had both died of heart attacks within an hour of each other.

In July, Jeanette and Alexander Toczko made headlines after they died in each other’s arms just days shy of their 75th wedding anniversary.

Ohio couple Helen and Kenneth Felumlee, died 15 hours apart in April 2014 after 70 years of marriage. The couple’s children said at the time that their parents had been inseparable since meeting as teenagers.

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“We knew when one went, the other was going to go,” daughter Linda Cody said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We knew when one went, the other was going to go," daughter Linda Cody said.

And apparently broken heart syndrome does exist.

“A real-life broken heart can actually lead to cardiac consequences,” the American Heart Association (AHA) states.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "A real-life broken heart can actually lead to cardiac consequences," the <a href="http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/Cardiomyopathy/Is-Broken-Heart-Syndrome-Real_UCM_448547_Article.jsp#.Vk0BgHarRGE" target="_blank">American Heart Association</a> (AHA) states.

Depression, mental health and heart disease are interrelated, and stress can take a toll on your heart, the association states.

The more official name is stress-induced cardiomyopathy or takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

It happens when a surge of stress hormones causes people to experience sudden, intense chest pain. This can happen after not just a death but other emotionally charged events such as a divorce or betrayal, and has been linked to times of natural disaster. It can also happen after positive, shocking events such as winning the lottery.

“In broken heart syndrome, a part of your heart temporarily enlarges and doesn’t pump well, while the rest of your heart functions normally or with even more forceful contractions,” the AHA states.

While broken heart syndrome can often be misdiagnosed as a heart attack, the National Institutes of Health states, it does not have the same medical profile: no blocked arteries, for example.

Researchers are still discovering the triggers of, and treatments for, the condition.

But Flutie needs no convincing the condition is real.

“They say you can die of a broken heart and I believe it,” he wrote on Wednesday.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They say you can die of a broken heart and I believe it," he wrote on Wednesday.