PHOENIX — Every year around Halloween time, Hollywood, haunted houses and pure pranksters try to scare people. They get a kick out of people's fear, and for those of us who are jumpy by nature, Halloween time can be a real nightmare.
But we wondered if the scares could be dangerous to your health, which led us to the question: Can you be scared to death?
Under very rare circumstances it can actually happen. It has happened. But it's more likely to happen to those who already have a medical condition.
To answer the question further, we asked a doctor to explain why fear caused the body to react. Dr. Andrew Carroll said if you know something's going to happen, your body prepares itself.
"You can be scared to death [if] you're walking down a trail and a bear pops out," he said, "but if you paid money to go into a haunted mansion, you already started out knowing what's coming."
But that was just one piece of the mystery. Team 12's Rachel Cole braved a haunted house at Fear Farm in Phoenix with a heart monitor on to see just how much adrenaline gets pumping.
Rachel Cole vs. Fear Farm
When I went into "Fallout" at Fear Farm, one of the employees had to go through with me. Then, I took my heart rate monitor results back to Dr. Carroll, and he explained the body's response to pure terror.
"If you're scared or you're being attacked by something, your heart rate goes up to give you that extra boost of energy to get oxygen around your body, your eyes dilate to give you focus, your gut stops doing things," he said. "Once again, focusing energy where you need it, your heart and your lungs."
After getting out of one storage container at Fear Farm and slowly scooting into the next, the heart-pounding ensued.
"I don't know what's happening here, but it must be pretty scary. You're up in the one-teens now, now you've got a good jog on your treadmill here," Dr. Carroll said.
Thirteen and a half minutes later, we finally made it out, but not before my heart rate peaked. But no, I wasn't technically scared to death.
"Pretty rare that you would actually be scared to death, but after all this, you're probably a little worn out, a little tired," Dr. Carroll said. "Because your body has just put out a lot of adrenaline and you're going to take some time to replenish that."
If you enjoyed Rachel's scary adventure, you can check out a few more Team 12 members attempting to brave Fear Farm in the video below.