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January 10th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MONDAY, Jan. 9 (HealthDay News) — There really is such a thing
as heartbreaking grief, suggests new research that finds losing a loved
one can increase the risk of heart attack.
Within a day of a significant other’s death, heart attack risk was 21
times higher than normal, said researchers who looked at data on nearly
2,000 heart attack patients. And within the first week after death, the
heart attack risk for the bereaved was still six times greater than
usual.
“Extreme grief can trigger heart attacks,” said lead researcher Dr.
Murray Mittleman, director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research
Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in
Boston.
“For at least a month the risk remains elevated and likely stays up
even longer,” he added.
The stress and anxiety of losing someone close can trigger
heart-damaging biological processes, Mittleman explained.
“All of this can cause a physiologic response with an increase in heart
rate and blood pressure, and also can cause changes that makes blood a
little bit more sticky,” he said. “This can increase the risk of having a
heart attack.”
After a death, it is important for immediate family members and friends
to be aware of this connection and watch for signs of distress, Mittleman
suggested.
“When an individual is grief-stricken, they often ignore their own
needs and may not be as compliant with medication, may not take care of
themselves as well,” he said.
If the bereaved individual develops unusual physical symptoms, “don’t
assume it’s just stress and anxiety; it may be a heart attack and should
be taken very seriously,” Mittleman warned. These symptoms include chest
or stomach pain, shortness of breath, nausea, lightheadedness or a sudden,
cold sweat.
The report was published in the Jan. 9 online edition of
Circulation.
Mittleman’s team collected data on heart attack survivors who took part
in a multi-center study between 1989 and 1994.
Shortly after having a heart attack, the patients were asked about the
circumstances of their heart attack and if they had lost a loved one in
the past year.
Based on the patients’ responses, the investigators found the risk for
having a heart attack rose to 21 times higher than normal within a day
after the death, fell to six times higher than normal through the first
week and continued dropping over the first month.
The researchers said the absolute risk of having a heart attack during
the first week after a loved one’s death ranged from 1 in 320 for those
already at high risk for a heart attack to 1 in almost 1,400 for those
whose risk was low.
Neither age nor gender affected the risk, Mittleman noted.
Earlier research found that grieving widows and widowers have a higher
risk of dying in the months after a spouse’s death, with heart disease and
stroke accounting for as many as 53 percent of those deaths among the
bereaved.
Commenting on the report, Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology
at the University of California, Los Angeles, said other studies have
shown that acute bereavement is linked with a heightened incidence of
cardiovascular events.
“The mechanisms accounting for this increased cardiovascular risk have
not been fully determined and are likely multifactorial,” he said.
“Recent studies suggest that a surge in inflammatory and prothrombotic
[clotting] factors following the death of a loved one may help explain the
elevated cardiovascular risk present at this time of acute psychological
stress,” Fonarow said.
More information
For more information on heart attacks, visit the American Heart Association.
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