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So many times you have felt that heart ache, in sadness, and felt it pound really hard in happiness. We call ourselves "heartbroken" when we are extremely sad. However, it seems there really is something called a "broken heart syndrome" which could be fatal.

Experts say that extreme happiness or sadness can actually be fatal. They say that a news that comes as a startling revelation, either good or bad can kill us, with post menopausal women being at the highest risk.

According to scientists from Germany a traumatic experience, whether good or bad, traumatic information causes the body to produce large amounts of stress hormones including adrenaline, which narrows the main arteries which supply blood to the heart, Mail Online reports.

This apparently paralysis the heart's main pumping chamber and can lead to a change in the rhythm, causing a condition similar to heart attack. Following such a condition, the patient may face difficulty in breathing, experience chest pain and weakness and could even die, if not given medical attention on time.

Researchers from the University Clinic of Rostock, in northern Germany, have found a possible explanation to something that has been studied for quite some time. They say that people can die not just of bereavement or broken heart, but also during an argument or due to excessive unexpected happiness like winning a lottery.

"These patients suffer under a heavy emotional load, either positive or negative. Their hearts literally break. It usually happens within minutes to an hour of hearing the news. The typical scenario is bad  news but there are reports of  both and we don't know what causes it most. We are very far from a conclusion however, this is only speculative," Dr Christoph Nienaber, director of cardiology at the university was quoted as saying by Mail Online.

"It mostly affects women who have undergone the menopause and are aged between 50 and 70 when they fall ill. We are still unsure why it seems to affect this group the most," he added.

The possible reason behind the same could be that the female body reacts especially strongly to stress hormones after menopause.

In Britain, an estimated 6,000 of the 300,000 patients recorded as having a heart attack every year have suffered from the broken heart syndrome. The exact number of people who suffered a broken heart could not be known since a lot of people with broken hearts would simply be recorded as having a heart attack.