Study: You Really Can Die from a Broken Heart

"I can't live without you" has been found to be true statement when talking about married couples. It was Al Green who asked, "How can you mend a broken heart?" Studies show that most do not know the answer to that question.

Health experts stated that those people who had lost a marriage partner to death were 27 percent more at risk for cancer, heart disease, fatal accidents and stroke. Glasgow University's Carole Hart did the research and through her findings she concluded that the death of a spouse was a significant cause of death.

The University of Glasgow studied 4000 couples. The study was Scottish and published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The study started in the early 1970s and its subjects were couples who were aged between 45 and 64. Following the first six months after a spouse died amongst one of the couples in the study, the risk of death from any cause became high for the other partner. After five years, the risk of heart disorder became higher.

Other factors such as smoking and high blood pressure were factored into the study. However, the risk from death of a spouse or broken heart still existed. Cathy Ross, of the British Heart Foundation believes that what causes problems is the poor way in which people cope with the death of a spouse. She remarked that often people will smoke or drink more. Usually they eat less than normal, and if they do eat, they eat things that are very bad for their health. Ross believes that it is not the actual death of a spouse that causes the death of the other partner, but how the death is coped with.

Several famous celebrity couples can be put into the category of dying from a broken heart. Four months after his wife, June Carter Cash, died, Jonny Cash died from diabetes complications at the age of 71. A mere ten days after wife, Audrey Callaghan, died, James Callaghan died at the age of 92.