Last week, I wrote about Men's Health magazine's search for "America's Fittest Firefighter" to appear on its cover. And, yes, I did suggest that women firefighters be featured in its sister publication, Women's Health, but haven't heard back on that.

Judging from your response to the quest for the fittest firefighter, I hit a jugular. Most readers said Men's Health would do better to focus on the need for the majority of firefighters -- who are unhealthy -- to get in better physical condition and not the minority of "six-pack" models. But get real. Would you buy a health magazine with an out-of-shape person on the cover?

A battalion chief from Michigan wrote that at first he was pleased the fire service would get good media coverage. "Then it dawned on me, this is fake," he wrote. "We, the fire service, are not the vision of health and fitness. A very small portion of firefighters nationwide are physically fit to perform the duties asked of them in fighting fire.... If we are the symbol of health, why do we keep dying of heart attacks?"

What do you say to the families of the firefighters lost when they suffer a heart attack because they were performing duties they were not fit for, the chief asked.

Last year, in a fairly emotional conversation with a couple of heart bypass survivors from the fire industry, I suggested that they come up with a lapel pin of a flaming heart or a heart in a Maltese cross for those in the fire service who have survived a heart attack. Their heart attacks changed their lives -- physically and mentally -- and maybe they could help others by telling their story.

Thursday's Chicago Tribune had an interesting article reporting that a "broken heart" is in fact a very real physical ailment. Medically referred to as stress cardiomyopathy, the article says a traumatic breakup, death of a loved one or even the shock of a surprise party can "unleash a flood of stress hormones that can stun the heart, causing a sudden, life-threatening heart spasm in otherwise healthy people."

According to Ilan Wittstein of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, whose findings appear in the New England Journal of Medicine, broken heart symptoms are similar to a classic heart attack. While test results show healthy, unclogged arteries, researchers found "levels of stress hormones in the patient's blood, such as adrenaline, were two to three times higher than in heart attack victims -- and seven to 34 times higher than normal."

Stress hormones? What about the sudden adrenaline rush of an alarm? Fire showing? Trapped victim? Firefighter down?

Life is stressful. But if you're already on medication for a heart or stress-related disease, how many more red flags do you need?

The Michigan fire chief said he liked my editorial's headline: "Healthy Firefighters Wanted." "I think they are wanted in more than one way," he concluded. "Now, how do we get them?"

Good question. From my heart to yours, Happy Valentine's Day.

Janet Wilmoth, Editor