Sympathetic storm is actually a series of physical behaviors triggered by extreme sympathetic arousal. It is not a new disease name, but a new medical term after studying a large number of patients with sudden acute death. Sympathetic storm can cause a sudden rise in blood pressure and tachycardia, which can lead to brain hemorrhage, myocardial infarction, heart failure and other fatal illnesses. Both overexcitement and overexertion can easily trigger sympathetic storms, which can cause serious damage to the body. In 2006, the new Guidelines for the Management of Ventricular Arrhythmias and Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death, developed by the American and European Society of Cardiology, provided the first clear definition of a sympathetic storm: two or more episodes of spontaneous ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation (detectable by ambulatory electrocardiography) within 24 hours. However, it has been found that this definition is narrowly defined because sympathetic storm does not only damage the cardiovascular system, it also damages other systems, such as the digestive, respiratory, nervous, and reproductive systems. The autonomic nervous system of the human body, which is not controlled by the human will, is divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves. The sympathetic nerves are mainly hyperactive and excitatory. When a person is active, the main function of the sympathetic nerves is to dilate the pupils, increase the heart rate, contract the blood vessels of the skin and internal organs, dilate the coronary arteries, increase the blood pressure, decrease the secretion of saliva, secrete sweat from the sweat glands, and contract the lissencephaly muscles to maintain the physiological needs of the person during activity. The sympathetic nerve is not controlled by human will, so when there is an emergency or in a state of excitement, the sympathetic nerve will be unconsciously excited, a kind of self-protection, such as when riding a roller coaster, the heart rate will naturally increase, the whole body muscle tension; when strenuous exercise, the heart rate accelerates; when arguing with people, red face and neck, the heart rate will also accelerate, these are the performance of sympathetic excitement. The role of the parasympathetic nervous system is the opposite of the sympathetic nerve, acting as an inhibitor, which can cause a slowing of the heartbeat, increased secretion of the digestive glands, pupil narrowing, bladder contraction and other responses to maintain the body’s physiological needs when quiet. Under normal conditions, sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves balance each other, and when one side plays a positive role, the other side plays a negative role, which is well balanced to coordinate and control the physiological activities of the body. Therefore, when the mood fluctuation is too great, such as very angry, very happy, very excited, the sympathetic nerve will be excited, and when it is abnormally enhanced and sustained, symptoms such as accelerated heart rate, palpitations, breath-holding, increased blood pressure, and accelerated breathing will occur. On the contrary, when the sympathetic nerves are weakened and the parasympathetic nerves are tense for a long time, it will cause symptoms such as indigestion, loss of appetite, physical lethargy, dizziness when standing, and easy fatigue. The “sympathetic storm” is commonly known as sympathetic overexcitation. Usually we often forget to be hungry when we are extremely excited, or are too angry to eat, which is the result of sympathetic storm. Sympathetic storms are very destructive, mostly occurring in patients with organic heart disease, causing a sudden rise in blood pressure and tachycardia, which can lead to brain hemorrhage, myocardial infarction, and heart failure. Sympathetic storms occur less often in patients without organic heart disease and mostly in patients with organic heart disease, such as acute myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndrome, coronary artery disease, etc. For patients with these underlying diseases, the chance of sympathetic storms is higher, which is also an important cause of sudden fainting, stroke, heart attack, and sudden death. For people without organic heart disease, such as healthy young people, sympathetic excitement will naturally cause sweating and blushing, which can be relieved after stabilizing the emotions, but for people with organic heart disease, “storms” can sometimes make them dangerous. Due to sympathetic overexcitation, it will cause a wide range of reactions in various organs, of which the heart and blood vessels are the most sensitive, and people with heart disease, their hearts and blood vessels will be more sensitive. If it cannot be restrained, the increase in blood pressure and heart rate will reflexively cause more sympathetic excitation. When ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation occurs, the heart loses its ejection function and the hemodynamic disorder will cause serious shortage of blood supply to the heart, brain, kidney and other important internal tissues, which will also further lead to central sympathetic excitation, and so on to form a vicious circle. If this is combined with a heart condition, it is easy to be knocked out. The risk of “sympathetic storm” is not far from us, sudden death at the mahjong table, sudden death on the Internet in Internet cafes, sudden death of doctoral sperm donor as well as sudden death during sex and sudden death while working late all belong to the type of “sympathetic storm” death, these people died suddenly have These people have a common cause of sudden death: overexcitement or overexertion. Prevention and first aid The best way to prevent sympathetic storms is to control emotions and avoid active triggers, including severe mental stimulation (loss of job, love, loss of a loved one, etc.), psychological injury, and the shock of unexpected events. Sympathetic storms themselves are difficult to detect in the general population. There are some telltale signs that can actually be detected early, such as the first onset, the more common symptoms are: such as high mood swings, restlessness, palpitations and insomnia, sweating, rapid pulse rate, and elevated blood pressure. For people with organic heart disease, the most basic thing is to control the heart disease first, for example, patients with tachycardia who have recurrent ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia are usually given electric defibrillation, along with high doses of amiodarone, and also some drugs that inhibit recurrent ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, such as metoprolol, esmolol and other beta-blockers. For people who have acute cardiovascular disease, sympathetic overexcitation will appear when angina and other precursors, to immediately lie down and rest, stop activities, stabilize emotions, use some nitroglycerin and other cardiovascular dilating drugs. Then immediately call an ambulance to the hospital for resuscitation, preferably within 30 minutes to get resuscitation.