Grief Can Stop Strong People In Their Tracks

Grief Can Stop Strong People In Their Tracks

The stress of the loss of a loved partner or other family member is a major emotional event and not a sign of weakness or lack of moral fiber.

Everybody deals with grief in their own way.  Bottling it up might be right for you but not for most of us.

Grief is a real mental and physical condition that has been known to cause death. The medical name for this condition is ‘Broken Heart Syndrome’.

Grief is natural, understandable, real and part of life.  A loss is always difficult to deal with and can take a long time to recover from, if indeed you ever fully recover.   But life does go on and you have to, eventually, make the best of it.

After the death of a loved one, after the funeral and the friends and family have all gone home, you are usually left alone to contemplate the future.  The more friends you have and the more things you are involved in, the easier it is to pull yourself up and get back into some sort of normality.

My experience would indicate that woman can handle grief better than men and often seem to have better networks of friends with whom to socialize. This network of friends can be a big help to the remaining partner as they come to terms with their loss and adjust to a life alone.

On the other hand many men seem to withdraw and seem unable to get out and mix. Their social activity might have previously been largely centred around their wife or partner and after the death of their partner some men end up without anything much in the way of social network. They may gravitate to the local tavern as they may be at a loss to find other ways to entertain themselves.  Men may also lack a network of close friends and may never have been in the habit of meeting for a chat or a joint activity unless they are involved in a recreational group.

There are plenty of exceptions and there are lonely people of both sexes at a bit of a loss to know what to do with themselves after their partner dies.  Others of course seem to readjust very well and can end up leading busy active lives with a wide circle of friends and, from all appearances, seem to be enjoying life after the initial period of mourning.  They don’t forget but they move on.

A study, started in 1991 and led by Professor Paul Boyle from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, followed 58,685 men and 58,425 women who had their wives or husbands die over the following 15 years.

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Of the widows, 26% of them died within three years of their husbands and of the widowers, 49% of them died within three years of their wives.  Of all those that died soon after their partners, 40 died within 10 days and 12 died on the same day as their partner.

There may be some reasons why people die soon after the death of their spouses and these could include being of a similar age, living a similar lifestyle and eating a very similar diet.  They may have also been exposed to similar health risks such as living in an area with a high concentration of traffic fumes or been jointly exposed to some other issue that may have had an affect their health.

Not only does it seem that there is such a thing as a widowhood effect that leaves people in a fragile emotional state but it is well now known that people suffering from depression often have health issues that seem to stem from poor mental states.  It can therefore follow that people suffering from grief can also experience adverse health issues.

Japanese researchers, in 1991 also identified and named a health issue associated to the onset of grief and called this ‘takotsubo cardiomyopathy’.  It is now more usually known as ‘apical ballooning syndrome’, ‘stress-induced cardiomyopathy’ or as the ‘broken heart syndrome’.

The acute phase of this condition does not usually last more than about a week but it can mimic a heart attack with chest pain and shortness of breath. Obviously, any sudden onset of chest pain and shortness of breath should be checked out by a Doctor.

The Mayo Clinic describes the broken heart syndrome “as a temporary condition bought on by stressful situations”….when… “a part of your heart temporarily enlarges”.

Broken heart syndrome or stress-induced cardiomyopathy is the sudden weakening of the heart muscle brought about by, usually, extreme sudden emotional stress.  It is also known that repeated constant or continual chronic stress can trigger an attack also as stress is a known cause of sudden heart failure, irregular heart beat and on rare occasions, the bursting of the wall of one of the two larger chambers of the heart.  The rupture of a heart chamber is an un-survivable health crisis.

When a patient suffering from an apparent heart attack, is examined on arrival at hospital and the left heart chamber or ventricle of the heart is discovered to be bulged it might well be sign that the heart problem is not just a typical heart attack..

When other tests rule out heart problems typical of a usual heart attack the bulge in the heart chamber wall could well be due to takotsubo cardiomyopathy. (Alternatively known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome.)

If the patient is found to have a recent history of emotional stress, such as the death of a loved one or some other emotionally traumatic event then stress-induced cardiomyopathy has to be considered.

Typical of this type of abnormal heart attack are elevated levels of the hormones that trigger the ‘fight or flight’ response that can, on rare occasions, usefully galvanize us into action in times of acute emergency. Most of these hormones originate from the adrenal gland and if present long term, or sometimes if produced suddenly and then maintained for a few days, can cause very undesirable side effects.

Another typical finding when patients suffer from these dangerous pseudo heart attacks is the lack of significant heart or vascular disease.  Another indicator of course would be a history of prolonged or sudden stress such as grief.

Treatment might be with a blood thinning drug.  Aspirin has been suggested as effective.

If the patient survives a bout of stress-induced cardiomyopathy they usually recover fully within two months once their life is back on some sort of even emotional keel.

I have the full story on plus some advice on how to deal with grief.  You will find find it worth reading if you or a friend have suffered a loss recently or are suffering from severe stress because of some other emotional trauma.

 

 

 

 

Ian Miller
Health Writer

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