According to new research, you can truly pass away from a broken heart following the death of a loved one, particularly if the pain is unbearable.
A study released Friday in the journal Frontiers in Public Health revealed that bereaved relatives who had high levels of grieving symptoms had a higher chance of passing away in the ten years after their loss than those who had low levels of grief.
Coauthor Mette Kj rgaard Nielsen, a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark, and her colleagues divided the 1,735 participants into groups that experienced low and high levels of grief symptoms in order to examine the long-term health outcomes of bereaved relatives in Denmark over a ten-year period.
Compared to 7.3% of relatives who were less severely impacted, 26.5% of those who shown high levels of grieving passed away throughout the study period.
A person with high levels of grief is one who exhibits more than half of the nine indicators of grieving that have been found by researchers. These include having trouble embracing the loss, feeling confused about who they are, and feeling emotionally numb or as though life has no purpose.
In order to gather information about their symptoms, participants were requested to complete questionnaires at the time of their initial enrollment in the study as well as six months and three years after their loss.
Researchers also looked at the frequency of interactions between the study participants and the health care system and discovered that relatives with high levels of mourning symptoms also utilized more primary care, mental health, and antidepressant medications.
Nielsen told CNN via email that those with a high grieving trajectory appear to be a vulnerable category of family who require extra care even before the death.
They could require more assistance. According to her, they might feel distressed and find it difficult to handle the situation. She cited earlier research that showed that high levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, low socioeconomic position, and poor self-reported health all contributed to overwhelming grief.
According to Sian Harding, a cardiologist and professor emeritus of cardiac pharmacology at Imperial College London who was not involved in the study, the researchers have done a fantastic job of identifying the precise impact of grieving even after controlling for these risk factors, she told CNN.
Since we are well aware that any type of loss has an immediate impact on heart health, she noted that the paper’s longitudinal viewpoint is one of its most important features.
The fact that this specific type of stress, when sustained, has a negative impact on the body did not come as a huge surprise to me. In particular, it can manifest as heart disease, but it can also manifest as other conditions, Harding said.
This study supports broader research demonstrating the impact a traumatic loss can have on an individual’s physical health, even if it did not look into the reasons of death of the bereaved relatives.
Broken heart syndrome, also known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is a well-known acute cardiac illness that is brought on by extremely stressful events, such as the death of a loved one.
According to Harding, prolonged stress brought on by loss can also result in poor mental health, elevated blood pressure, elevated cortisol, and an increased risk of diabetes. She also mentioned earlier studies on broken heart syndrome, which revealed that some people pass away on the anniversary of their loss.
According to Nielsen, the results of the most recent study indicate that medical professionals might be able to identify family members who are experiencing distress early in the course of the patient’s sickness and provide follow-up.
