人真的会因为心碎而死吗?

You hear it whenever someone gets sick or dies soon after losing a spouse: Was it because of a broken heart?

每当有人在失去配偶后不久便生病甚至死亡，就会听到这种说法：是因为心碎吗？

Stress might not be to blame for former President George H.W. Bush's hospitalization a day after his wife's funeral, but it does the body no favors, and one partner's health clearly affects the other's.

美国前总统乔治.H.W.布什在妻子葬礼的第二天便入院接受治疗，这或许不能归因于压力，但肯定对身体没好处，一个人的健康状况显然会影响其伴侣。

A sudden shock can trigger a heart attack or something like it called broken heart syndrome. Some studies also have found that people are more likely to die soon after losing a longtime spouse.

突如其来的打击会导致心脏病发作或被一些被称为“心碎综合征”的症状发生。一些研究还发现，人们在失去长期陪伴自己的配偶后不久死亡的可能性较高。

But often the timing is mere coincidence, and "broken heart" speculation just fuels a neat narrative when the problem is unsurprising in an older person with underlying health issues.

但时机往往只是个巧合，有潜在健康问题的老人出了状况并不令人惊讶，人们猜测这是“心碎”造成的只是希望对这一现象作出更简洁的描述。

Bush has suffered from a number of health conditions in recent years, including a form of Parkinson's disease and a serious bout with pneumonia.

近年来布什一直有一系列的健康问题，包括一种帕金森氏症和一场严重的肺炎。

In any case, the death of a loved one is a dangerous time for the surviving spouse, said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center and an American Heart Association spokeswoman.

纽约大学兰贡医疗中心的心脏病专家、美国心脏病协会发言人尼卡·戈德伯格博士称，无论如何，爱人死亡之时对于幸存的配偶来说是个危险的时刻。

"When people are depressed after something like this happens, they may not be eating, they may ignore symptoms and want to be stoic. They're certainly stressing and may not be getting enough rest. All of these things can set the stage for life-threatening conditions. It's really important to have a lot of other support around you."

“当人们因为发生这样的事而感到沮丧时，他们可能不想吃东西，可能会忽视一些症状，希望默默承受痛苦。他们肯定会压力很大，无法得到充足的休息。所有这些都会导致危及生命的状况出现。这时身边有许多情感支持是非常重要的。”

It's possible the former president ignored early signs of infection during the flurry of preparations for Barbara Bush's funeral, said James Giordano, a Georgetown University neurologist and expert on stress's effects on the body.

美国乔治敦大学的神经学家、专门研究压力对身体影响的詹姆斯·乔达诺称，在筹备芭芭拉.布什葬礼的过程中，老布什可能忽视了早期的感染迹象。

"It could be something as simple as that; inattention led to an escalation of signs and symptoms," he said. so medical problems and risks are magnified by stress.

乔达诺说：“事情可能就这么简单，疏忽导致症状加剧。”所以说，医学问题和风险会因压力而被放大。

Stress has three stages, Giordano said: alarm, when the body releases "fight or flight" chemicals that can do damage; a resistance stage, like "calling out all the troops" to deal with the stress; and then fatigue or a letdown stage, when some of the body's defenses may crash from the strain.

乔达诺说，压力有三个阶段：警报阶段，即身体产生“战斗或逃跑反应”，释放可以造成伤害的化学物质；抵御阶段，即“全体出动”应对压力；疲劳或松弛阶段，即身体的某些防御机制可能因紧张而崩溃。

Even if a partner's death is anticipated -- as Barbara Bush's was after she decided to forgo more aggressive medical treatment and focus on comfort care -- "facing and going through the reality of the event" is stressful, he said.

他表示，即便配偶去世在意料之中--当时芭芭拉·布什决定放弃更积极的治疗并专注于舒适护理--但“面对和经历这一现实”也是非常有压力的。

Stress and a broken heart sometimes may get too much blame, though, when people are grieving.

不过，当人们悲伤时，压力和心碎有时可能受到了过多的指责。

"Broken heart syndrome" was widely speculated when Debbie Reynolds died a day after her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher, in 2016.

2016年，黛比·雷诺兹在同为演员的女儿凯丽·费雪去世后的第二天也不幸离世，从而引发了她死于“心碎”的普遍猜测。

An autopsy later showed that Reynolds, 84, died of a blood vessel that ruptured and caused bleeding in her brain -- a kind of stroke. She also had high blood pressure and other serious medical problems for several years before that.

后来的尸检结果显示，84岁的雷诺兹死于血管破裂引发的脑出血--一种中风。她还患有高血压，此前几年也曾出现其他严重的健康问题。