Can people get scared to death?

You can scare the pants off someone or be scared shitless, scared stiff, or scared out of your wits. But is it really possible to be scared to death?

There is significant evidence that psychological and emotional stress can increase the likelihood of a heat attack. So it makes perfect sense that the stress of fear could lead to sudden death.

In The Hound of the Baskervilles, a famous Sherlock Holmes story that has been adapted into film several times, Sir Charles Baskerville dies of a heart attack after being frightened by a ferocious dog. An article form the British Medical Journal in 2001 entitled “The Hound of the Baskervilles Effect: A Natural Experiment on the Influence of Psychological Stress on the Timing of Death” examines whether this phenomenon is actually true. These researchers wanted to show that people are more likely to die of a heart attack when they suffer extreme emotional stress, so they focused on the death rate on the fourth day of the month. In Japanese and Chinese cultures, the number four is associated with death and is feared and avoided. This is not true in other cultures.

When the death rates between Japanese and Chinese Americans and white Americans were compared on the forth of the month, the researchers found that death rates on this day peaked in the Japanese and Chinese but not in other groups. So it seems as though you can be scared to death – by the number four at least.

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6 Comments

  1. Bill
    November 1, 2007 at 1:37 am | Permalink

    Why do people get scared?

  2. Tommy
    November 5, 2007 at 10:00 pm | Permalink

    Why people get scared?

  3. Maggie
    January 16, 2008 at 2:11 am | Permalink

    Can you get a heart attack from being scared?

  4. Katz
    May 24, 2008 at 2:54 am | Permalink

    my grandma is verbally abusive manipulative and terrified of snakes while I don’t want anything to seriously bad happen to her I’d just like to put a nonpoisonous snake in her bath tub to scare her as a practical joke. Just want to know if it is possible to scare someone to death because I don’t want to end up in serious trouble because it got out of hand. Is it possible to scare someone to death? I just want her out of our lives not to finish her off. I never pulled a prank with any risk of death or serious injury and like to keep it clean yet this woman is driving me crazy and I can’t match you know verbal abuse with her. So maybe putting a snake in her bathtub would be perfect to drive her away. So is it really possible to scare someone to death and a lousy idea or is it the perfect way to get her out of our lives?

  5. Monica
    October 16, 2008 at 12:41 pm | Permalink

    Can People Really Be Scared to Death?

  6. Brandon
    November 2, 2008 at 10:45 pm | Permalink

    your gay

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