Did Debbie Reynolds Die Of A Broken Heart?

(CBS4) - Is dying of a broken heart medically possible? Science says it is.

Iconic actress Debbie Reynolds died Wednesday, just one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher succumbed to a heart attack.

Reynolds' son Todd Fisher told the Associated Press "I want to be with Carrie, and then she was gone."

No official cause of death has been revealed yet, but according to doctors, there is a condition called stress-induced cardiomyopathy, or simply "Broken Heart Syndrome."

CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook told CBS This Morning ""Basically, when you're under a lot of emotional stress... you have this huge release of things called catecholamines. That's adrenaline, norepinephrine, [and] dopamine, and they can affect the heart and the blood vessels. They flood the heart and what's thought to happen, although it's not entirely clear, is that they stun the heart muscle."

LaPook explains the heart's left ventricle, which pumps blood to tissues in the body, stops working correctly. That can lead to a blood clot and stroke. In that case, a blood clot can form in that area of the heart and travel to the head, which causes a stroke.

Broken Heart Syndrom was first identified in Japan about 25 years ago. According to the American Journal of Cardiology, 6.230 cases were reported in the U.S. in 2012. The vast majority of cases are found in women, though men can get it, as well.

Dr. Harmony Reynolds, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center, told CBS News the syndrome gets its name due to severe emotional stress like the death of a loved one, or other very upsetting news.

LaPook says most who suffer from Broken Heart Syndrome will recover, but it can lead to death from heart attack or heart failure.

He stresses that if anything feels wrong in the body, to immediately see a doctor.

"I always tell people nobody knows your body better than you," he said. "If you're just not feeling right, there's something wrong, if the hairs on the back of your neck are standing up, call your doctor because something could be up."