The death of a life partner might trigger an irregular heartbeat, itself potentially life-threatening, the results of new research into the risk of dying from a broken heart showed.
A trawl of data on nearly 1 million Danes showed an elevated risk — lasting for about one year — of developing a heart flutter after the death of a life partner.
People aged under 60 whose partners died unexpectedly were most in peril, the data showed.
The risk was highest “eight to 14 days after the loss, after which it gradually declined,” a study published in the online journal Open Heart said.
“One year after the loss, the risk was almost the same as in the non-bereaved population,” it said.
Much research has focused on explaining the observed phenomenon of people dying soon after their life partner has died.
Several studies have shown that grieving spouses have a higher risk of dying, particularly of heart disease, but the mechanism is unclear.
The latest study specifically asked whether bereaved partners were more likely than others to develop atrial fibrillation, the most common type of irregular heartbeat and a risk factor for stroke and heart failure.
Researchers in Denmark used population data collected between 1995 and 2014 to search for a pattern.
Of the group, 88,612 people had been newly diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and 886,120 were healthy.
“The risk of developing an irregular heartbeat for the first time was 41 percent higher among those who had been bereaved than it was among those who had not experienced such a loss,” the study said.
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