RICHMOND, Va — Let’s talk about your feelings for a moment.
We’ve heard of how smiling and laughter can be good for you. Now, a new study finds the opposite is also true — anger can be bad for your health.
So much so, in fact, that it can lead to an increased risk for heart attack.
Researchers in Australia studied more than 300 patients who had suffered heart attacks and found seven had been ‘very angry’ (a 7 on a 7-point scale measuring anger) within two hours of the heart attack. That level of anger is described as the point when the person’s body was tense and they were “ready to explode.”
The reason behind the increased risk — anger is associated with increased clotting, changes in heart rate and changes in blood pressure, according to multiple reports. Those factors are associated with heart attack.
