People prone to angry outbursts may be putting their hearts at risk, according to a new US study. Researchers observed that brief moments of anger can cause stress in the lining of blood vessels.
This is significant because previous research has linked similar stress to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke in patients with coronary heart disease. The new study suggests that frequent anger outbursts could have a similar negative impact.
While earlier studies hinted at a connection between anger and heart health, the reasons behind it were unclear. This research suggests that maintaining a calm state is beneficial for blood vessel health.
Interestingly, the study found that feelings of anxiety and sadness did not trigger the same response in blood vessels. This is despite these emotions also being linked to heart problems in other studies.
"Impaired vascular function is linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke," said lead study author Daichi Shimbo, MD, a professor of medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Centre in New York City.
"Observational studies have linked feelings of negative emotions with having a heart attack or other cardiovascular disease events. The most common negative emotion studied is anger, and there are fewer studies on anxiety and sadness, which have also been linked to heart attack risk."
In the study that was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association, the researchers investigated whether negative emotions-anger, sadness, and anxiety-may have an adverse impact on blood vessel function compared to a neutral emotion.
