Lose your temper, hurt your heart

When it comes to relationships women are more likely than men to be controlling and aggressive, a study claims.

When it comes to relationships women are more likely than men to be controlling and aggressive, a study claims.

Published Feb 27, 2015

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London – A family row, road rage and work disputes are enough to send your blood pressure through the roof.

But new research warns that losing your temper could be having a negative impact on your health.

Having a violent temper increases the risk of a heart attack more than eightfold, scientists said.

And for those experiencing high levels of anxiety, the risk of suffering a heart attack in the hours after an outburst, is nine and a half times greater, they said.

Researchers noted patients with a suspected heart attack admitted to hospital were often found to have had a period of anger or anxiety before their attack.

They reported family rows, road rage or work disputes were all triggers.

The findings confirm previous research and anecdotal evidence that anger can trigger heart attacks and strokes.

It could pave the way for doctors to provide patients with training - or even medication - to reduce their anger and stress levels, to lower the risk of an attack, researchers said.

Dr Thomas Buckley, from the University of Sydney, Australia, said: ‘While the absolute risk of any one anger episode triggering a heart attack is low, our data demonstrates that the danger is real and still there.’

He added the increased risk of a heart attack following intense anger or anxiety is ‘most likely the result of increased heart rate and blood pressure, tightening of blood vessels and increased clotting, all associated with triggering of heart attacks’.

He said the findings ‘add to the small, but growing, body of evidence linking acute emotional triggers with onset of a heart attack’.

The study investigated suspected heart attack patients admitted for primary angioplasty – a procedure to clear a blocked artery, which is the cause of a heart attack.

They were admitted to the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia, between 2006 and 2012.

They were assessed by coronary angiography, a specialised X-ray test to find out whether the heart’s arteries are blocked.

As part of the research 313 patients were confirmed to have an artery that was partially or completely blocked and were enrolled in the study.

The patients’ anger in the 48 hours before they developed the symptoms of a heart attack was self-assessed by questionnaire.

Their anger was measured according to a seven-point scale, with one defined as ‘calm’, and seven as ‘enraged, out of control, throwing objects, hurting yourself or others’.

For study purposes, the threshold of acute anger was defined by level five - ‘very angry, body tense, maybe fists clenched, ready to burst’.

The study found that seven of the 313 confirmed cases of a heart attack (2.2 per cent) had experienced anger of at least level five within the two hours preceding the onset of symptoms.

In addition, one participant had reached anger level five within four hours of the heart attack.

Anger level four (‘moderately angry, so hassled it shows in your voice’) was reported by two participants within two hours of their heart attack and by three participants within four hours.

The risk of a heart attack occuring within two hours of reaching anger level five or above was calculated to be eight times greater than that associated with normal levels of anger.

Lower levels of anger, or anger occurring over two hours before symptom onset did not reach statistical significance.

Dr Buckley advised that propensity to anger or anxiety should be assessed when managing an individual with heart disease or preventing heart disease in others.

He said: ‘It should be part of helping individuals to take care of themselves.

‘Potential preventive approaches may be stress reduction training to limit the responses of anger and anxiety, or avoiding activities that usually prompt such intense reactions.

‘And for those at very high risk, one could potentially consider protective medication therapy at the time of or just prior to an episode, a strategy we have shown to be feasible in other studies.

‘Minimising other risk factors, such as high blood pressure or smoking, would also lower the risk.’

Daily Mail

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