Angry People Hurt Their Hearts

Someone cuts you off in traffic. What happens next? Do you get angry -- or let it slide?

Believe it or not, your reaction makes a difference in your heart health. Anger is a real threat.

"It's pretty clear that a lot of people who are angry -- people who get angry about being in traffic, in a long supermarket line, angry at something that a spouse says - are the people at higher risk for a heart attack 10, even 15 years down the road," says Redford Williams, director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.

Many studies show a connection between anger and heart health. A recent study appearing in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association adds to the mountain of evidence, saying men who explode in anger are more likely to develop an irregular and dangerous heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation (AF). This is a life-threatening condition that cannot correct itself. AF increases the risk for blood clots to form and travel to the brain, possibly causing strokes.

This study adds to others such as one from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, which tracked 1,300 men for nearly 40 years. Men who became angry under stress were three times more likely to develop heart disease early in life.

Anger triggers response

Anger causes the body to react like it's under attack, kicking the sympathetic system into gear. The sympathetic system is in the involuntary part of your nervous system, which gets the body ready for fight or flight. This is a reaction your body undergoes when you face a stressful situation. Do you stay and deal with the problem or run from it?

"When your sympathetic nervous system is fired up, your heart becomes sensitive to all sorts of things," Williams says. "It tends to create more adrenalin, which makes the heart more irritable."

Unhealthy habits

Often people who have chronic anger have poor health habits to help deal with this stress. They tend to eat poorly, smoke and drink too much alcohol. On top of that, chronic anger can devastate lives, wrecking relationships and careers.

This is why it is important to identify the source of your anger and change how you react to certain situations. Williams offers a simple plan in his book "Anger Kills."

You can change

Remind yourself of the facts of a situation, Williams says. "If I get stuck behind someone driving too slowly and it gets me home five minutes later, is it really a big deal? You can't change the situation. You need to change your reaction."

Williams offers four questions that you should ask yourself:

• Important? Is this matter important to me?
• Appropriate? Is what I am feeling and thinking appropriate to the facts of the situation?
• Modifiable? Is the situation modifiable in ways that will reduce my negative feelings or thoughts?
• Worth it? When I balance the needs of myself and others, is it worth taking action?

"These four questions can help you manage your anger. If you answer yes to the first question, go to the second. Even if you have four yeses and you think you have to take action, it doesn't mean you blow up. You just practice assertiveness," Williams says.

In other words, be tactful and sensitive.

Five techniques

Here are some ways to deal with anger:

• Exercise.This is a natural mood elevator and a great stress buster.
• Count to 10 and breathe slowly. Deep breathing slows heart rate and blood pressure.
• Express your emotions on paper. Then throw the paper away.
• Avoid using statements that start with "You." This puts people on the defensive and makes a volatile situation even worse. Start sentences with "I feel" or "I think."
• Cry. And laugh.

Related Articles Youthful Anger Means Early Heart Disease

External Sources American Heart Association American Psychological Association

This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.

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