A study by the Danish team published in an online journal, Open Heart, on Wednesday found out a broken heart can literally cause different heart problems. Being broken hearted with the death of a loved one can result to atrial fibrillation, the most common kind of irregular heartbeat that can lead to stroke and heart failure.
According to Today, the group of researchers observed the medical data record of people's health visits in Denmark from 1995 to 2014. They discovered about 88,000 patients were identified to have atrial fibrillation while 880,000 individuals in the same age and situation were healthy.
Study Findings
The researchers found out 19 percent from each group lost a loved one and many of them acquired atrial fibrillation. Hence, according to the examiners analyzation, a person who felt the loss of someone they love is at higher risk of suffering atrial fibrillation, particularly if they lost their significant other unexpectedly.
There's a 41 percent chance that an individual can suffer atrial fibrillation if they experienced sudden loss. The possibility of having atrial fibrillation can also double up at the first two weeks of grieving.
Lacking Evidence
"The elevated risk was especially high for those who were young and those who lost a relatively healthy partner," Dr. Simon Graff of Aarhus University in Denmark and others explained in their study. Meanwhile, CTV News reported the researchers noted they can't specifically point out the cause and effect of atrial fibrillation as what they did was purely an observation based on the data gathered.
Broken Hearts Are Real
Experiencing a death of a loved one can be a very traumatic incident that has a negative effect on someone's psychological, emotional and physical state. Being broken hearted can result in different heart problems, mental illnesses like depression and anxiety, and a variety of health risks.
Other factors of atrial fibrillation differ from person to person depending on how they take care of themselves. Atrial fibrillation can also be because of high blood pressure, heart defects, metabolic imbalance and abusing the use of different stimulants, as per Mayo Clinic.
