For some people, the emotion they feel during a broken heart can affect their physical body. The feeling of sadness, disappointment, and betrayal piles up, causing the pain to spread to their entire body. But is there another explanation how broken heart can lead to physical pain? Here it is, as cited from Rappler.

1. Humans are essentially social creatures.
   Humans are wired to be social. Social attachment is an important aspect in survival, and any change in that situation (including broken heart) triggers a kind of "danger" signal, which comes up as pain.
2. Broken heart and headache trigger activity in the same area of the brain
   Pain is related to an activity in a specific brain region: the dorsal portion of the anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). A group of people had their brains scanned when they were looking at a photo of their former partners and when they were given a painful heat stimuli. The result showed that there was an overlap of affected brain parts, including dACC. In other words, the pain you feel from a heartache is as true as a physical pain.
3. Sensitivity to physical pain equals to sensitivity to emotional pain
   Studies have found that people with a high sensitivity to physical pain are also more prone to emotional pain. Furthermore, there is a receptor gene called mu-opioid, which is known to affect a person’s pain tolerance. People who have this rare gene need a higher dose of pain killers to treat their physical pain. When tested for sensitivity to emotional pain, they were indeed found to be more sensitive than those who did not carry the gene.
4. Both get worse with inflammation
   When you have the flu and your insides are inflamed, your whole body aches and you feel very tired. Similar to that, inflammation also affects emotional pain. A group of scientists from University of California prove that inflammation induces feelings of social disconnection in addition to depressed mood.
5. Both can be alleviated with analgesics
   Since physical and emotional pain are strongly linked, scientists also hypothesized that pain killers could erase the burden of emotional pain. A study published in 2010 by University of Kentucky proves that acetaminophen (aspirin), while does not completely erase the pain, can provide comfort and make you feel better from emotional pain.

Text by Denistya Sagita
Stock photos from Pixabay

Source(s):

• http://www.rappler.com/science-nature/ideas/science- solitaire/168084-scientific- reasons-emotional-physical-pain
• http://elitedaily.com/dating/scientific-reasons- why-a- broken-heart- is-really- bad-for- you/970609/