A Danish study published in Frontiers in Public Health found that people can die of a broken heart.
Researchers, including Mette Kjærgaard Nielsen of Aarhus University, tracked nearly 2,000 grieving relatives over a decade, dividing them by grief intensity to study long-term health effects.
During the study, 26.5% of those with high grief levels died, compared to 7.3% with lower grief. High grief was defined as having more than half of the nine symptoms, such as emotional numbness, feeling life is meaningless, or struggling to accept the loss. These individuals also used more antidepressants and mental health and primary care services.
“Those with a high grief trajectory seem to be a vulnerable group of relatives already before the death, with need for special attention,” Nielsen told CNN.
UnityPoint Health explains “broken heart syndrome,” or takotsubo cardiomyopathy, as a heart condition triggered by a surge of stress hormones during intense emotional events. This surge can temporarily weaken the heart and cause heart failure. Triggers include the death of a loved one, job loss, divorce, or a terminal diagnosis.
However, UnityPoint Health Cardiologist Dr. Tim Martin asserts the symptoms are treatable: “Once providers make sure a patient isn’t experiencing a heart attack or other heart-related event, they can identify if feeling brokenhearted might be contributing. If a patient is diagnosed with broken heart syndrome, symptoms can be treated with medicine to help blood flow, prevent blood clots and help control blood pressure.”
