Why heartache hurts

Social rejection shares somatosensory representations with physical pain. DOI: It might even be possible to die of a broken heart. People who are in the early stages of grief are more likely to experience increased blood pressure and heart rate, which can raise their cardiovascular risk. Buckley T, et al. Haemodynamic changes during early bereavement: potential contribution to increased cardiovascular risk. A study found that widows and widowers were 41 percent more likely to die within the first 6 months after losing their spouse.

The researchers suspect this was a result of a 53 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Fagundes C, et al. Spousal bereavement is associated with more pronounced ex vivo cytokine production and lower heart rate variability: Mechanisms underlying cardiovascular risk?

As more scientists confirm the biological basis of love, there may eventually be a treatment for heartbreak. In the meantime, psychotherapist Athena Staik shares three important tips to make it feel a little better. Take an honest look at what you just went through. Eat super healthfully. Cut out sweets and alcohol as much as possible. Science shows that love is effectively a painkiller, because it activates the same sections of brain stimulated by morphine and cocaine; moreover, the effects are actually quite strong.

On one level this suggests a wonderfully simple and elegant solution, albeit a New Agey one, to physical or emotional pain: All you need is love. In fact, researchers recently showed that acetaminophen—yep, regular old Tylenol—reduces the experience of social pain.

While they might not admit it, for biologists and psychologists, understanding love on a chemical level is tantamount to finding the holy grail. After all, the more we understand about love in terms of science. Ultimately, all this progress points to one thing: treatment, with both painkillers and antiaddiction drugs. Perhaps recovering from heartbreak could be as simple as wearing a patch Lovaderm! If you could take a pill that assured that you could fall in love, fall out of love, or stay in love on command, would you take it?

Become a subscribing member today. Addicted to love. Get the science of a meaningful life delivered to your inbox. By Anna Luerssen August 20, This article — and everything on this site — is funded by readers like you. Heartbreak is an unfortunately common part of the human experience, and it really, really sucks. We feel heart broken when we lose someone or something we loved or wanted very much, like a romantic relationship or a friendship, a family member, a pet, or a job or opportunity that was very important to us.

Heartbreak can cause a large amount of stress, especially if the loss is a sudden one. This stress can affect how we feel emotionally and physically, and may take weeks, months or even years to recover from. Studies show that your brain registers the emotional pain of heartbreak in the same way as physical pain, which is why you might feel like your heartbreak is causing actual physical hurt.

Love can be addictive, like a drug, because of the hormones our brain releases when we become really attached to someone or something. Then, when heartbreak happens, these hormone levels drop and are replaced with the stress hormone cortisol.