{"id":161525,"date":"2018-04-25T04:55:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T08:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=161525"},"modified":"2018-04-25T04:55:13","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T08:55:13","slug":"after-a-death-how-much-can-broken-heart-hurt-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/25\/after-a-death-how-much-can-broken-heart-hurt-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"After a death, how much can ‘broken heart’ hurt survivors?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A sudden shock can trigger a heart attack or something like it called broken heart syndrome. Some studies also have found that people are more likely to die soon after losing a longtime spouse. (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You hear it whenever someone gets sick or dies soon after losing a spouse: Was it because of a broken heart? Stress might not be to blame for former President George H.W. Bush’s hospitalization a day after his wife’s funeral, but it does the body no favors, and one partner’s health clearly affects the other’s.<\/p>\n

A sudden shock can trigger a heart attack or something like it called broken heart syndrome. Some studies also have found that people are more likely to die soon after losing a longtime spouse.<\/p>\n

But often the timing is mere coincidence, and \u201cbroken heart\u201d speculation just fuels a neat narrative when the problem is unsurprising in an older person with underlying health issues.<\/p>\n

In any case, the death of a loved one is a dangerous time for the surviving spouse, said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center and an American Heart Association spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really important to have a lot of other support around you,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen people are depressed after something like this happens, they may not be eating, they may ignore symptoms and want to be stoic. They’re certainly stressing and may not be getting enough rest. All of these things can set the stage for life-threatening conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABOUT BUSH<\/p>\n

Bush, who will turn 94 in June, has been hospitalized since Sunday with an infection that’s spread to his blood.<\/p>\n

Stress weakens the immune system and can make infections harder to fend off, said several doctors not involved in his care. But Bush needs a wheelchair because of a form of Parkinson’s disease and has been hospitalized before for pneumonia and other infections.<\/p>\n

It’s possible he ignored early signs of infection during the flurry of preparations for Barbara Bush’s funeral, said James Giordano, a Georgetown University neurologist and expert on stress’s effects on the body.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be something as simple as that; inattention led to an escalation of signs and symptoms,\u201d he said. \u201cHe’s old, there’s no good way to put it,\u201d so medical problems and risks are magnified by stress.<\/p>\n

Stress has three stages, Giordano said: alarm, when the body releases \u201cfight or flight\u201d chemicals that can do damage; a resistance stage, like \u201ccalling out all the troops\u201d to deal with the stress; and then fatigue or a letdown stage, when some of the body’s defences may crash from the strain.<\/p>\n

Even if a partner’s death is anticipated – as Barbara Bush’s was after she decided to focus on comfort care – \u201cfacing and going through the reality of the event\u201d is stressful, he said.<\/p>\n

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS<\/p>\n

Stress and a broken heart sometimes may get too much blame, though, when people are grieving.<\/p>\n

Country music star Johnny Cash died four months after his wife, June Carter Cash, did in 2003. She was 73 and died of complications following heart valve surgery. He was 71 when he died of problems related to diabetes and had a neurological disease for years before that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroken heart\u201d was widely speculated when Debbie Reynolds died a day after her actress-daughter, Carrie Fisher, did in 2016. An autopsy later showed that Reynolds, 84, died of a blood vessel that ruptured and caused bleeding in her brain – a kind of stroke. She also had high blood pressure and other serious medical problems for several years before that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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