Now “broken heart syndrome” (as it was creatively named) is nothing new. It’s not really thought to produce any real long-lasting health complications, it’s just a scientific name for something we all experience at one point or another, right? Maybe, maybe not. While most people do find the strength to move on, it seems that others strangely leap from broken heart syndrome into full-on physical heart issues.

Researchers say that 1 in 320 people who are at high risk for heart failure and 1 in 1,400 people who are at low risk will experience increased heart problems due to some kind of heartbreak. Specifically, grieving spouses are more likely to die of a heart attack or a stroke, which accounts for 53% of their deaths.

How does it work? First of all, a person who is grieving an intense emotional loss, be it death, severe depression, or just your run-of-the-mill bad breakup, is likely to not take very good care of themselves. They’ll get less sleep. They’ll neglect medication. They’ll neglect to eat, or they just won’t eat with any regard to health. Potentially, they might drink,smoke or even engage in some illicit acts or even more harmful acts. You see, the grieving process increases cortisol levels in the blood. Intense grief brings on psychological stress, increased heart rate, blood pressure, and clotting, and there you have a perfect recipe for a heart attack...This can actually lead to death or someone do some funny things to his or herself.

Noted... So many Heartbreakers topics of late.