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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MKTBUZZ who wrote (638320)	10/5/2004 12:22:25 PM
From: goldworldnet	Respond to of 769670

Thanks MKTBUZZ and the good folks here. I just stopped by to say hi. My son is at college and my daughter is a high school senior this year. I almost bought a big house, but decided to wait. There's just no way to sugar coat it. It's hard. One of my biggest concerns right now is that no one wants to insure me. I'm in a high-risk group now and was just turned down for life insurance. I did a little research and this is what I came up with from several sources. Grief is an adverse life event that has often been associated with increased risk of MI. Bereavement entailed a 1.4 times increased risk of MI in Parkes' (Parkes, Benjamin & Fitzgerald, 1969) study of London widows. Kraus & Lilienfield (1959) reported that mortality was at least seven times greater in bereaved men and women under the age of 45 than for control groups of married people. Males had mortality 10 times greater, and most of these deaths were related to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). Helsing, Szklo & Comstock (1981) reported the same trend: mortality of bereaved males was consistently greater than for bereaved females, but those who remarry live longer than those who do not. Widowers versus Widows Experience of Bereavement - More rapid social recovery than widowers. Emotional recovery was slower for men than women. Usually started to date earlier than widows did. Widowers who did not seek female companionship a year after their wife’s death were more likely than widows to feel lonely and depressed. Less frequently in touch with children and church activities. Risk of mortality for Widows and Widowers - Almost all studies have found excessive mortality rates for bereaved people in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Japan. Gender: The risk is even greater for widowers. Age: Younger adults who lose a spouse have a relatively higher excessive mortality rate than the elderly although the elderly have a higher mortality rate in general. Most at risk are young widowers whose wives have died suddenly. The 3 Leading Causes of Death Among the Bereaved. Heart disease, Cancer, Violent deaths eg. Suicide Gender differences in mortality and morbidity following a major stressor: the case of conjugal bereavement Camille Wortman, Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA Loss of a spouse is generally considered to be the most severe stressor people encounter during the course of their lives. Available data provide clear evidence that men are more affected by widowhood than are women. Studies have found that among widowers, there is an increase of about 10% in mortality compared to males who are not widowed. In contrast, widows show only a slightly higher rate of mortality than non-widowed women. The risk of suicide for widowers is reported to be more than five times higher than that of married men, while the relative risk of suicide for widows is near unity. Widowers also show a greater frequency of ailments and illnesses than do widows. Finally, widowers have been shown to have higher rates of depression than widows. In this talk, we draw from the research literature, as well as our own studies of bereavement, in an attempt to elucidate mechanisms underlying sex differences in mortality and morbidity following conjugal loss. Evidence suggests that women and men differ in their emotional reactions to the loss and the coping strategies they employ. For example, in addition to higher rates of depression, men are more likely to experience greater anger and bitterness following conjugal loss. They are also less likely to express their feelings following the death, and more likely to abuse alcohol. There is also evidence to suggest that men and women experience different strains following widowhood. Our data suggest that the primary sources of strain following widowhood are linked closely to gender differences in marital roles. Available research indicates that men benefit more from marriage than do women. Consequently, they may be more vulnerable than women to the loss of this relationship. Our data suggest that men experience considerable stress following widowhood because they have to perform more household tasks and receive little help in doing so. In contrast, widowed women spend less time on housework than married women, presumably because they no longer have to perform housework for themselves and their husbands. * * *