Heartbreak Increases Heart Attack Risk

Mourning the loss of a loved one increases your chance of a fatal heart attack by six-fold.  A sudden flood of stress hormones is believed to be behind the grief-induced heartache, a condition that earlier studies have found is more likely to affect women.

These physical changes occurred immediately after a profound loss.  According to a Heart Foundation study, surviving spouses or loved ones were found to have higher blood pressure, increased heart rates and changes to their immune system that increased the risk of a heart attack.  Leaving this study to surmise that grieving people were at a significantly higher risk of heart problems.

Of the 160 people in this study, half were mourning the loss of a spouse or child, and their risk of a heart attack increased by six-times.  This additional heart attack risk began to subside after six months and leveled out after two years.

This study seems to proof that grieving people were at a significantly higher risk of a heart attack and gave us potential proof that you can indeed die from a broken heart.