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Negative emotions are generally considered harmful to health, but it seems that anger is particularly so. This is the observation made by a team of American researchers, who explain that brief episodes of anger are likely to alter the functioning of blood vessels. An anomaly itself associated with an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
There are many situations that can lead us to see red, whether at work, in transport, in our relationship, or more generally in our personal life. But beyond the stress and anxiety that such angry episodes can generate, can they also harm your overall health? Yes, answers today science, which has worked on the subject.
Anxiety, sadness, anger… what is the most harmful emotion?
American researchers were more specifically interested in the influence of several negative emotions, including anger, sadness and anxiety, on the function of blood vessels, compared to what we could call a neutral emotion. All aimed at determining whether these particular feelings could, ultimately, play a role in certain cardiovascular diseases.
For the purposes of this work, the scientists randomly subjected 280 adults to what they called “an emotional task” for eight minutes. Each of the participants could come across either a personal memory that made them angry, or a personal memory linked to anxiety, or the reading of a series of depressing sentences associated with sadness, or the enumeration of figures and numbers up to 100. In this last case, it is a neutral emotion which was expected by the researchers. The scientists also analyzed the cells lining the participants’ blood vessels, before and after assigning them these specific tasks – at the equivalent of 0 minutes, then 3 minutes, then 40 minutes, 70 minutes and 100 minutes.
No more risk of heart attack and stroke within 40 minutes!
Published in the Journal of American Heart Association, the conclusions of this work highlight an alteration in the dilation of blood vessels linked to memories that provoked episodes of anger. And this, from 0 to 40 minutes after “the emotional task completed”. Beyond that, the anomaly in question no longer appeared. And this alteration led to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
Note that memories or actions linked to anxiety and sadness did not have the same effects. “We found that evoking anger led to blood vessel dysfunction, although we don’t yet understand what may cause these changes.“, confirms Daichi Shimbo, cardiologist and professor of medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, in New York, in a press release.
This is not the first time that researchers have established a link between discomfort – or negative emotions – and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and events. A study published just a year ago in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, using data from more than 6.5 million people aged 20 to 39, suggested that people with mental health disorders , regardless of their nature, had a greater risk of being affected by a heart attack or stroke, of the order of 58% and 42% respectively, compared to the other participants. More recently, American researchers have shown that polluted air could cause stress, and by extension increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
Good in his body, good in his head!
The impact of mental health on the heart
“This study adds to growing evidence suggesting that mental well-being can influence cardiovascular health and that acute and intense emotional states, such as anger or stress, can lead to cardiovascular events.“, said Glenn Levine, chair of the scientific statement writing committee, master clinician and professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. And added: “We know, for example, that intense sadness or similar emotions are a common trigger for tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy, and that events such as earthquakes or even watching a soccer match as a fan , which cause stress, can lead to myocardial infarction and/or arrhythmias“.
One of the researchers’ next objectives will be to determine the mechanisms by which these emotional states, including anger, significantly impact the cardiovascular health of men and women around the world.
Slide: Anger: 10 things to do to calm down (before you break down…)