Keeping Tender Hearts Healthy with Grief Support
During Heart Health Month, we often focus on cholesterol, blood pressure, exercise, and diet. All of these matter. But there is one major risk factor that isn’t talked about nearly enough.
Grief.
Research shows that people who experience the death of a loved one face a significantly increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular events, particularly in the weeks and months following a loss. Acute stress, sleep disruption, and prolonged emotional strain can place measurable physiological stress on the heart, not just emotional distress.¹ ²
Caregivers face similar risks, often earlier.
Long before a death occurs, caregivers are frequently living with chronic stress, anticipatory grief, exhaustion, and isolation. Their attention stays on the person they’re caring for, while their own health quietly deteriorates. Studies show caregivers have higher rates of cardiovascular disease and mortality compared to non-caregivers, especially when emotional support is limited.³
But there’s good news. When grief and caregiver support are offered proactively, they can help regulate stress, reduce isolation, and keep tender hearts healthy.
For healthcare organizations and charities, there’s another long-term impact. Supporting people during the end of life (when many people vanish) is a powerful way to build trust. Families remember who showed up during the hardest moments of their lives, and that trust strengthens ongoing engagement, community connection, and giving.
Heart health isn’t only shaped by biomarkers. It’s shaped by life events that place emotional and physical stress on the body. Supporting people through caregiving and grief is part of protecting cardiovascular health.
At Help Texts, we support caregivers and grievers during what are often life’s most vulnerable times. We send texts when their heart risk is at its highest and when traditional support is often the hardest time to find.
This Heart Health Month, consider ways that you can support your community, team, and families, during end of life and bereavement. These moments quietly weigh on the heart. And just a little support can help.
- Mostofsky, E., Maclure, M., Sherwood, J. B., Tofler, G. H., Muller, J. E., & Mittleman, M. A. (2012). Risk of acute myocardial infarction after the death of a significant person in one's life: the Determinants of Myocardial Infarction Onset Study. Circulation, 125(3), 491–496. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.061770
- Carey, I. M., Shah, S. M., DeWilde, S., Harris, T., Victor, C. R., & Cook, D. G. (2014). Increased risk of acute cardiovascular events after partner bereavement: a matched cohort study. JAMA internal medicine, 174(4), 598–605. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.14558
- Schulz, R., & Beach, S. R. (1999). Caregiving as a risk factor for mortality: the Caregiver Health Effects Study. JAMA, 282(23), 2215–2219. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.282.23.2215