Increases the risk of heart attack after the death of a loved one?

Strong psychological stress, such as that described occurs after the death of a close relative can “break” a mans heart in the literal sense. This was shown in a large-scale case-control study. Accordingly, the risk of heart attack, after the death of a loved one rise by more than 21 times.

The strong grief heart attack-like symptoms can cause, is already longer than “Broken Heart Syndrome” known phenomenon. That they can also lead to a real heart attack, has now been demonstrated in a study conducted in the US. Of the 1985 patients surveyed 270 patients had lost in the six months prior to the heart attack a close to them.

In the survey, it was found that the risk of suffering a heart attack, in the first 24 hours after bereavement is highest, namely increased by the 21,1 face and then decreases continuously with consecutive time. After a week, the risk is still increased almost sixfold. Only after more than a month, it gradually comes to a normalization of risk. By comparison, anger increases the risk of heart attack by 2.3 times, terrified by 1.6. The strongest increases the likelihood of a heart attack after a bereavement of subjects. They caused such risk factors as high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol levels.

For the increase in risk of heart attack after losing a loved one, there are several reasons. The blood pressure may increase the stress hormones cortisol. They released are amplified and the blood vessels tend to shrink more. The stress may even lead to the thickening of the blood, causing blood clots are arise more easily. Each of these factors contributed to increasing the risk for a heart attack. Therefore, vulnerable patients should be closely monitored after a bereavement, so that timely countermeasures can be taken.