Title: Headaches. Hair loss. Even strokes and cancer: The terrible cost to your body of a broken heart | Daily Mail Online
Headings: Headaches. Hair loss. Even strokes and cancer: The terrible cost to your body of a broken heart
Headaches. Hair loss. Even strokes and cancer: The terrible cost to your body of a broken heart
HAIR LOSS
Within weeks of losing a loved one, some women lose hair at an alarming rate.
COLDS AND FLU
HEADACHES
ASTHMA
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
DID YOU KNOW?
INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE
CANCER
MUSCLE PAIN AND BONE FRACTURES
Cortisol can reduce bone formation, leaving widows with more fragile, brittle bones.
HEART DISEASE AND STROKE
Studies have also shown that recently bereaved people suffer changes in their heart rhythms, which puts them at risk.
DIABETES
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Content: COLDS AND FLU
Grief weakens the immune system, leaving us vulnerable to colds, flu, sore throats and tummy upsets. Again, the culprit is cortisol, which surges through our bodies when we are stressed to prepare us for a quick getaway from danger. In order to give muscles and brain more energy, it diverts the body’s resources away from our immune systems. Over weeks and months, that can make us far more likely to fall ill. According to researchers at the University of Birmingham, chronic severe stress makes us 20 per cent more likely to pick up a viral infection. And there’s a double whammy. Because cortisol suppresses the immune system, our bodies don’t respond properly to vaccinations. That means your annual flu shot will be less likely to work if you have been recently bereaved —– increasing the risk of getting an infection. HEADACHES
Bereavement can trigger tension headaches — the so-called ‘stress headaches’ regularly experienced by a third of adults. The causes are not properly understood, but they are often linked to tight shoulder and neck muscles.