A: Yes, your risk of heart attack increases when someone you love dies.
We’ve all heard stories of elderly couples dying within weeks of each other. Family members often attribute the second death to that person’s intense grief at the loss of their loved one, and say they died of a broken heart. But can you really die from a broken heart?
Bereavement is considered the most intense stress a person can experience and it increases your risk of a heart attack, says Dr Thomas Buckley, a researcher and lecturer at the University of Sydney.
Buckley says research over the last 50 years has shown when someone very close to you dies – especially if it’s your partner or child – you’re at a significantly greater risk of dying yourself. And it is your heart that is most likely to kill you during this period of intense grief, with heart attacks responsible for more than half of the excess deaths in those who are recently bereaved.
Read the whole article at The ABC
