Heartache can be a heart stopper.
A study finds that the death of a loved one is a powerful trigger of heart attacks.Researchers discovered that the risk of suffering a heart attack is 14 times higher than usual on the day following the death of a "significant person" - a parent, child, grandparent or other close relative or friend.
"Potentially there are other life events stressful enough to cause heart attacks, but the death of a significant person is one that will universally cause extreme distress," said Dr. Murray Mittleman of Deaconess Hospital in Boston.
The search for the triggers of heart attacks has become a hot subject of research. It was pioneered by Dr. James E. Muller, a member of the Deaconess team, who found that simply climbing out of bed in the morning sharply increases the risk of an attack.
In recent years, these and other researchers have identified several emotional and physical events that can touch off heart attacks in people who already have underlying heart disease. They include bursts of anger, physical exertion, sex, even earthquakes.
Mittleman outlined the latest findings Thursday at a cardiovascular epidemiology conference sponsored by the American Heart Association.
The researchers interviewed 1,774 heart attack patients shortly after their heart attacks. Among other things, they were asked about the number of deaths of close relatives and friends over the previous six months.
For the entire group, there was an average of less than one death a day over the six months - six-tenths of a death daily, to be exact. However, it turned out that nine of the patients had experienced deaths of loved ones on the day before their heart attacks - about 14 times more than would be expected.
Nine more people suffered heart attacks on the second and third days after the deaths. Assuming all 18 were triggered by the deaths, this means that about 1 percent of all the heart attacks studied were touched off by other people's deaths.
Considering that 1.5 million Americans suffer heart attacks annually, other people's deaths could trigger more than 10,000 heart attacks each year.
"Everyone has heard anecdotes of things like this. This suggests that the death of a significant other increases your risk of a heart attack," said Dr. Aaron R. Folsom of the University of Minnesota.
Mittleman said he hopes future research will sort out ways to lower the risk to the newly bereaved.
For now, he said, the biggest benefit of the latest data is the clues it provides to understanding how intense emotional stress harms the heart.