Team DailyPedia
Do you ever wonder why some people tend to die soon after they lose their life partner?
Considered as one of the most stressful events in a person’s life, the loss of a partner often leads to unhealthy behaviors such as losing appetite and sleep, drinking too much, and not exercising. This tragic event may also cause mental illness symptoms such as depression.
A recent study carried out by researchers in Denmark has found that the death of a life partner may put the grieving spouse at greater risk of dying, particularly of stroke and heart disease.
The researchers looked into the population data of nearly a million Danes gathered between 1995 to 2014 in order to look for a pattern.
Based on their findings, individuals whose partners died unexpectedly develop an irregular heartbeat, which is considered life-threatening. It was also found that 8 to 14 days after the death, the risk gradually declined. One year after the death, the risk was almost the same as with the non-grieving population.
The study published in the online journal Open Heart said: “The risk of developing an irregular heartbeat for the first time was 41% higher among those who had been bereaved than it was among those who had not experienced such a loss.”
It was also observed that younger people, particularly those under 60, were more than twice the possibility to be at risk. Meanwhile individuals whose partners were relatively healthy in the month before their death thus were not expected to die, were 57% more at risk.
Since the study was just observational, no conclusions regarding the cause and effect can be drawn from it.
