Can you die of a broken heart?

At the Nursing Home I worked in, a few GPs put down as Primary cause
of death 'Old Age'.
These were Residents who were 95plus and we were all so happy to get
that cause- it was always a gentle death: ideal.

Yes Jess those famous strong people. There is a very good little book called 'Depression the Curse of the Strong' by Dr Tim Cantopher. He is talking about clinical depression not the more common sort which most of us expereince at times. People who manage to cope with all the stuff others don't manage are very vulnerable.

I was once told when we were facing tough times "Its all right for you, you are strong" Easy to say and a good excuse not to cope!

Yes quite movealot - I used to do that while i was teaching. stress level drops, immune system tries to recalibrate and bingo. flu or something.
There are many people though who live under high stress for years - e.g. caring for a difficult sick family member, and manage to stay well themselves.

Jess can people really continue long term with "can't afford to get ill"? I don't know the answer but I do know of many people who are so stressed at work that as soon as they take time off for a holiday get ill. If that is the case then the immune system's improvement would only be temporary. Of course this is not just "everyday stress" to which you refer, this is more extreme than that.

Well "broken heart" is a metaphor isn't it.
In victorian times they used to "go into a decline". But doctors then had to deal with so much TB and that is a weird illness - people can have a latent case, walled up in a corner of their lungs for years and then a shock to the system unbalances the immune system and they developed active disease.
I believe that everyday stress is over used as a reason for illness though. Spent a long time , a very long time, writing a chapter on this when I was writing the great work. Sometime stress (and mental attitude maybe) can improve the immune system. You know the one where you really can't afford to get ill?

After my aunt died, just before Christmas nine years ago, my uncle's bad cold quickly developed into pneumonia for which he declined to go into hospital and he died eight days after she did. I know that he just gave up because I had to watch him going downhill.

Old age is often put on death certificate, but with an additional entry for primary cause, like heart failure.

I doubt if you'd find "broken heart" as cause of death on a death certificate, any more than you will find "old age". Nevertheless, we all know that people can die of old age – there's nothing specifically wrong; they've just had enough. So why not a broken heart?

My dad was a fit as a fiddle and had to look after my mum for 10 years when she became blind and wheel-chair bound. When she died he was distraught and just gave up - died 2 months later (aged 96 and mum 94). Everybody who knew them said he died of a broken heart.

Graduated 1968!

jeni - another Birmingham graduate? - I am and my OH was at med school there.

I do believe that you can die as a result of a partner dieing, Scientifically it is explained that the immune system is weak but in layman's terms it is dieing of a broken heart. It is very powerful!!!!

My mother was distraught when my father died, but she lived another 30 years, mostly happily until she developed dementia in the last four years.
I think women are just more resilient than men, and if they have children and grandchildren they have a powerful incentive to live.

Ana I don't think anyone would look at your post like that, I didn't.

Perhaps some widows/ers carry on for the sake of other members of the family? I don't think it implies that there was less love for the one who died, just that there are other reasons to carry on. I don't have any experience of this as I'm not sure my Mother loved my Father anyway.

Actually a bit tactless I think - I didn't mean to upset anyone, sorry.

Ana

Good for you Gally

An aunt of mine, in previously good health, died six weeks after her daughter took her own life. We were convinced my aunt died of a broken heart.

Well, like a lot of other GN's, I'm still hanging in there although some days I feel I would be happier if I wasn't here, especially around this time of anniversaries and Christmas; I can understand how some widows/ers can't go on - my inlaws died 2 months apart - he from a 'broken heart', however, there is a strong inbuilt desire to 'live' in the human being, so long as you can be positive and look forward - that's what I shall do - not about to turn up my toes just yet

Is that science yet again "proving" what the public have instinctively known for years. It seems to happen a lot.

Much better for widows, though!

The survival rate for widowers is not, traditionally, very good I believe.

Well hell, we're all going to die of something. A broken heart is as good as – maybe even better –than anything else.

I thi nk any kind of severe stress can do it. And there can't be anything more stressful than bereavement.

My MIL collapsed at her husbands graveside during the funeral and died that evening. My Cousin's husband, already ill in hospital with farmer's lung, died exactly one week after young his son was killed when a car he was working on fell on him. Both these deaths were recorded as cardiac infraction - a broken heart indeed.

Doesnt surprise me, I am always more likely to catch bugs when I am stressed.