This is from the Life Script Healthy Advantage Newsletter. My mother is caregiver for my father, who suffered a hemorrhagic stroke that left him partially paralyzed on his right side. She has developed high blood pressure and often says "I swear that taking care of him is going to kill me!"
My mother is basically quite healthy, other than having had a hip replacement a year and a half ago and cataract surgery six months ago. But my father has a lot of needs and has always been sort of a "high maintenance" individual.
Here is the article.
Sick Spouse Shortens One's Life
Having a spouse or partner who suffers from debilitating illness raises one's own risk of premature death, a new study finds. The study, conducted by Harvard Medical School researchers, was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers studied medical records from more than 500,000 elderly couples, tracking the health status of both partners over the course of nine years. According to the results of their study, researchers concluded that the phenomenon known as the "bereavement effect" or "caregiver burden" appears to be grounded in statistics. Men and women with sick spouses were up to five times more likely than their peers to die from a variety of causes, including suicide, accidents, infections and undiagnosed conditions.
My mother is basically quite healthy, other than having had a hip replacement a year and a half ago and cataract surgery six months ago. But my father has a lot of needs and has always been sort of a "high maintenance" individual.
Here is the article.
Sick Spouse Shortens One's Life
Having a spouse or partner who suffers from debilitating illness raises one's own risk of premature death, a new study finds. The study, conducted by Harvard Medical School researchers, was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers studied medical records from more than 500,000 elderly couples, tracking the health status of both partners over the course of nine years. According to the results of their study, researchers concluded that the phenomenon known as the "bereavement effect" or "caregiver burden" appears to be grounded in statistics. Men and women with sick spouses were up to five times more likely than their peers to die from a variety of causes, including suicide, accidents, infections and undiagnosed conditions.
