Persistent Grief Nearly Doubles Your Risk of Death Over 10 Years
Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health
Briana Mercola
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
- Persistent grief symptoms nearly doubled the risk of death within 10 years, showing that unresolved grief has serious long-term health effects
- People with high levels of grief were far more likely to use antidepressants, sedatives, and anxiety medications for years after their loss
- Frequent doctor visits remained elevated for up to seven years in those experiencing unrelenting grief, highlighting the strain it places on both mind and body
- Long-lasting grief keeps stress hormones high, weakens your immune system, disrupts sleep, and increases your risk of chronic disease
- Taking steps like honoring your unique grieving process, supporting your body with sleep, healthy diet, and exercise, and using techniques like the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) helps you move through grief and protect your long-term health
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If your grief stayed intense for years, would you believe it could nearly double your risk of death over the next decade? |
| 0:06.6 | Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. |
| 0:14.7 | No reading required. Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights. |
| 0:19.8 | Hello, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. |
| 0:23.0 | I'm Ethan Foster, and today we're looking at new research, |
| 0:26.3 | showing that when grief remains persistent and severe, |
| 0:29.2 | the long-term toll is far more than emotional. |
| 0:32.0 | It tracks with more medications, more medical visits, |
| 0:35.4 | and a striking increase in mortality risk. |
| 0:37.8 | I'm Alara Skye. The study followed 1,735 bereaved relatives for 10 years and mapped |
| 0:46.0 | how grief changed over time. A small group, about 6%, stayed on a high grief trajectory, |
| 0:53.7 | meaning symptoms remained intense and unrelenting for years. |
| 0:57.0 | Compared to people whose grief eased, this group faced nearly twice the risk of death across the decade, |
| 1:04.0 | signaling that unresolved grief can reshape your health future. |
| 1:07.0 | The differences were visible in day-to-day care. People in the high grief group |
| 1:11.8 | made far more general practitioner visits, and that pattern didn't fade quickly. Visits stayed elevated |
| 1:18.3 | for up to seven years after the loss. Out-of-hour's calls also rose during years four through six, |
| 1:24.5 | showing how distress spilled over into emergencies outside normal office times. |
| 1:29.1 | They also leaned more on mental health services. The high grief group was almost three times |
| 1:34.5 | as likely to use therapy, yet their symptoms remained high, and the health risks persisted. |
| 1:40.8 | That signals a gap. Care was accessed, but it didn't consistently move people off the high grief trajectory. |
| 1:48.0 | Medication use told the same story. |
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