Grief can damage your health

I was reading an article on the BBC website about research into survival rates of bereaved people. Here is a snippet

“Writing in the journal, the researchers led by Dr Carole Heart, said: “We have shown that bereavement does have an impact on mortality risk, in addition to that of individual risk factors – which had a fairly small influence – and that the effects are persistent.” Stewart Wilson, of the counselling charity Cruse Bereavement Care, said: “When a couple have been together a long time, the incidence of long-term survival is relatively low for the other partner.”Cathy Ross, of the British Heart Foundation, said the common ways of coping with the death of a loved one often led to health problems.”Some people will smoke more, other people may drink more and they tend not to eat – or to eat really badly. “It is really about how we cope with the bereavement, rather than the process itself.”

When you are bereaved it is so easy to let yourself go, turn to a more unhealthy lifestyle. It is so important to try and eat well, get some exercise and keep away from smoking or excessive drinking. You have just seen the effect of the loss of life,   your family don’t want to cope with another loss so soon. I have not been great in this area and this article has spurred me to think more about exercising….