By Issy Ronald, CNN

You can actually die of a broken heart after the death of a loved one, especially if the grief is overwhelming, new research shows.

Bereaved relatives who experienced “high levels” of grief symptoms were more likely to die in the 10 years following their bereavement than those who experienced “low levels” of grief, a study published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Public Health found.

In the study, coauthor Mette Kjærgaard Nielsen, a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark, and her colleagues investigated the long-term health outcomes of bereaved relatives in Denmark over the course of 10 years, dividing the 1,735 participants into groups who experienced “low levels” and “high levels” of grief symptoms.

During the study period, 26.5% of t

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