Don’t Get Angry: It’s Bad For Your Health

How bad, exactly, is anger for your health? Let this article in the Wall Street Journal count the ways. The journal reports that anger releases adrenaline and cortisol, which can trigger an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and sugar metabolism. That’s great if you’re being attacked by a saber-toothed tiger, but it’s not so great when you’re sitting in traffic. Long term health effects can include damage to the heart, and increased blood pressure and blood flow can damage the lining of arteries. Want studies? Here you go: A study of 300 heart attack patients published in March in the European Heart Journal: Acute Cardiovascular Care found that those who had experienced intense anger had an 8.5 times greater risk of heart attack in the two hours after the outburst than they would normally. Yes 8.5. And this: a review of nine previously conducted studies on anger and cardiovascular problems found a higher rate of problems including strokes, heart attacks and arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, in the two hours following an outburst of anger. Read more in the Wall Street Journal, and relax.