Legends of different versions have been around for centuries tracing the origin of Valentine’s Day. Invariably, they all go back to ancient Roman history. The most widely popular one relates the story of a priest named Valentine during the early days of Christianity.
It was said that during the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius II (A.D. 214-270), he decreed that young men should not marry to minimize their reluctance to fight in his wars. In spite of this, however, Father Valentine continued to perform marriages secretly. For this, he was arrested and jailed. While in prison, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer. His great faith and prayers miraculously “restored her sight.” Unfortunately, their love did not last. The emperor had the priest put to death by beating, stoning and eventual decapitation. Before he died, Valentine wrote a farewell letter to his love, signing it “From Your Valentine.” This salutation of endearment has endured over the centuries and used by generation after generation, now still a custom in the new millennium.
For centuries before and after the execution of Valentine, the Romans celebrated the controversial fertility festival on the 15th of February, called Lupercalia, in honor of Juno, goddess of women and marriage. This pagan practice (young men’ rights of passage, using teenage girls) was banished by Pope Gelasius in A. D. 496. To celebrate the death anniversary of Father Valentine’s death, the Church replaced the pagan ritual with a Holy Day (February 14th) honoring St. Valentine. And yearly since, people around the world honor their loved ones by celebrating St. Valentine’s Day in their own individual and special way.
I received a text yesterday, which said, “Just to siomai love for you, I am sending you a box of heart-shaped tikoy. Hopia like it.”
To all of our readers, A Happy Valentine’s Day!
“SAD” on Valentine’s Day?
Did you know that Valentine’s Day, the Lover’s Holiday, is within the prime SAD season of the year. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) inflicts some pain on some people, and is said to be caused, to a great extent, by the short daylight hours and lack of sunlight. Obviously more of a disease in the west, like the United States, where winter lingers for at least three months, SAD is also known as the Winter Blues. Somehow it also affects some people in Asia, including the Philippines.
Victims are usually a bit depressed. They eat much more and gain weight during the period, besides being more fatigued than usual, and sleeping longer than usual. These individuals develop a craving for sweets and starches – carbs! – which seems to provide a temporary boost in their energy level. As a result, they tilt the scale up fast.
SAD, as the name implies, is seasonal, and, therefore, transient. With a good attitude and positive personal reinforcement, one can minimize, if not, ward off, the symptoms of SAD by controlling the mood with social activities, exercises, and other personal endeavors that interest the person.
Broken-heart syndrome
A lover’s broken heart could well be what it says and means. And so with those people who experience a sudden shock by hearing news of a death in the family, or by being jolted by a surprise, or any event that suddenly jacks up the catecholamine (hormones like adrenalin that are produced following stress) level in the body to 30 times higher than normal. Folklore has always asserted that traumatic events could cause a heart “attack,” suggesting a close link between emotion and the heart. It is now appears there is a scientific basis for it.
According to Johns Hopkins cardiologist Ilan Wittstein, any sudden shock, extreme sadness, or fright, “can trigger Broke-Hert Syndrome or Stress Cardiomyopathy, which mimics a heart attack, except that the victim suffers no lasting or irreversible damage.” In the Broken-Heart Syndrome, first described by Japanese physicians in the 1990s and only a few weeks ago by U.S. cardiologists in a published article in The New England Journal of Medicine, the heart is temporarily stunned. The rise in the stress hormone levels as a result of the sudden shock causes some spasm in the coronary arteries that momentarily reduces the blood flow to the heart muscles. This leads to the classic symptoms and signs of a heart attack. But the heart function in this syndrome returns back to normal in 10 days or so. In a major heart attack, recovery takes weeks, if not months, and the heart power may not return to normal at all
More studies are needed to answer a multitude of questions and unravel the mystery behind the Broken-Heart Syndrome.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email: [email protected]
