The next time you find yourself fuming at a red light or seething over a traffic snarl, try and keep calm as your heart may be paying the price of that anger.
The study involved 280 healthy adults who were assigned to either recall an anger-inducing event, a sad event, or an anxiety-inducing event, or also participate in a neutral task.
“We found that anger — but not the other emotions we studied — had an adverse impact on vascular health,” said Daichi Shimbo, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at CUIMC.
More research was needed to explore the mechanisms through which anger affected vascular health and to develop interventions that could mitigate these harmful effects.
“This finding aligns with research suggesting that emotional health is deeply intertwined with physical health, chiefly cardiovascular health,” adds Dr Mukherjee Madivada.
He said regular physical activity, maintaining social connections, and employing stress-reduction techniques — like meditation — could help maintain cardiovascular health.