How Anger Wrecks Your Body
(ABCNews.com) Dr. Redford Williams of Duke University and author of the book, Anger Kills, says mounting research shows that the stress hormone cortisol that fuels your anger can literally tear your blood vessels.
“It’s actually causing little nicks and tears in the inner lining of the arteries that feed our heart,” Williams said. “If the anger continues day in and day out, the repair doesn’t take place.”
And once the arteries are damaged, a bout of rage could trigger a heart attack.
“And these frequent chronic anger-induced arousals can over time reduce your resistance to infections, can make you more prone to develop cancer,” Williams said.
In a recent study at Hope College in Holland, Mich., researchers asked 71 college students to recall a hurtful situation that involved another person. In the study, which appears in Psychological Science, the students were asked to assess how their bodies reacted as they spent two hours alternately imagining themselves forgiving and not forgiving the other person.
Each session lasted about 16 seconds followed by a relaxation period. During the unforgiveness sessions, they replayed the events in their minds, remembering how unfair it was of the person to hurt them, how they would like them to feel about it and how they would feel if they harbored a grudge.
The students’ heart rates jumped from a baseline of 1.75 beats every four seconds to nearly three beats during the rehearsal sessions, the study says. The beats rose to 2.6 when they harbored grudges. Similarly, blood pressure rose 2.5 mm/Hg in a four-second period when the students either rehearsed the hurtful experience or harbored grudges.
But when the students chose to empathize with the person who hurt them, and focus on their human qualities, their heart rates fell an average of a half-beat every four seconds.
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A short fuse ‘trebles risk of suffering heart attack’
By David Derbyshire, Electronic Telegraph
A study of 256 people over six years found a strong link between feelings of anger and frustration and an increased risk of heart disease. The researchers, who published the findings in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, think stress hormones could trigger heart disease.
People who were most prone to anger were 2.7 times more likely to have a heart attack or sudden death than those with the lowest anger ratings. The relationship was found even when risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol levels and obesity were taken into account.
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It hurts to get angry
If a rattlesnake is cornered, it can become so frenzied that it will accidentally bite itself with its deadly fangs. In the same way, when a person harbors hatred and resentment in his heart, he is often hurt by the poison of his own malice. He thinks he is injuring his enemies by displaying his wrath, but the real harm is inflicted deep within his own soul. Nothing is ever gained by giving way to the dark passion of bitterness and anger.
When someone wrongs us, we must learn to forgive and ask God to let His love fill our heart. It’s the only way to keep from being hurt by bitterness, wrath, and anger.
--Henry G. Bosch
