Science proves anger spikes can increase heart attack risk

Can explosive anger cause emotional damage?

Previous research suggests that there is a link between acute anger episodes and increased risk of anger. heart attack. Researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Yale University School of Medicine, and St. John's University in New York wanted to find out why.

To answer that question you need to: make some people angry.

Researchers recruited 280 healthy young people and randomly divided them into four groups. One control group counted out loud for eight minutes and maintained a neutral emotional state, and the other group recalled an event that made them angry, sad, or anxious. Before the start and at 100-minute intervals thereafter, the researchers took blood samples and measured blood flow and pressure.

The findings were announced on Wednesday. American Heart Association Journalshowing that anger can actually affect the heart because it impairs blood vessel function.

The researchers found that people in the angry group had a significantly reduced ability to dilate blood vessels compared to people in the control group. Vasodilation is not affected by sadness; anxiety group.

Dilation is controlled by the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels. Dilation and contraction cause blood vessels to slow down or increase in velocity. blood flow to the necessary parts of the body.

Further testing revealed no damage to the endothelium or the body's ability to repair endothelial cell damage.

Research has shown that the only problem is expansion. Impaired dilation of blood vessels is an early marker of atherosclerosis, the accumulation of fat and fat. cholesterolDirt on the artery walls called plaque makes the arteries hard. Atherosclerosis is caused by coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.

“That's why endothelium-dependent vasodilation is an important mechanism to study,” said co-author Andrea Duran, an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. It was stated using

The findings could help doctors persuade patients who: Heart disease Dr. Holly Middlekauf, a cardiologist and professor of medicine and physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, says you can resolve anger issues and control your anger through yoga, exercise, cognitive behavioral therapy, and other established techniques. said.

“It's not well known or widely accepted that anger causes heart attacks,” said Middlekauf, who was not involved in the study. “This study lends biological plausibility to the theory that anger is bad for you and that anger enhances your emotions. blood pressureThis shows that the health of your blood vessels is compromised. ”

And that may get some patients' attention, she added.

Duran cautioned that the laboratory study was basic research and more research was needed. For example, scientists don't know exactly how anger inhibits vasodilation. “That's for future research,” she said.

Researchers say in their paper that several factors are at play, including changes caused by stress hormones, increased inflammation, and activation of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates involuntary processes such as heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing. He suggested that it may be possible.

Additionally, the researchers intentionally selected healthy participants without heart disease or other chronic conditions that could confound the results. While this is a strength of the study, it is also a limitation, as the findings may not apply to sick older adults.

“This was just a first step,” said Rebecca Campo, a psychologist and program director at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which funded the study.

Future research should focus on “people with cardiovascular disease and diabetes, people living in rural areas, and ethnic and racial minorities.”

Middlekauf said the study's biggest limitation is that it looked at a single bout of provoked anger.

“We want to look at studies of groups of chronically angry people and see what their vascular function is like,” she said.