Woman ends up in hospital after mistaking wasabi for avocado

A 60-year-old woman devoured so much wasabi, believing it to be avocado, she was hospitalised with a heart dysfunction.

"After she ate the wasabi, she felt a sudden pressure in her chest radiating to her arms, which lasted [a] few hours," explains the case report. "She decided not to leave the wedding and the pain started to subside."

"On the following day, she felt weakness and general discomfort, prompting her to seek medical evaluation."

The condition that the wasabi brought on, takotsubo cardiomyopathy (or 'broken heart syndrome'), causes the left ventricle to suddenly and temporarily become weaker under stress.

The symptoms of takotsubo cardiomyopathy resemble a heart attack and include chest pains.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of takotsubo cardiomyopathy triggered by wasabi consumption," writes the team from the Soroka University Medical Centre in Israel.