Research reveals that anger may impair your blood vessel functioning.
Anger negatively influences blood vessel health, a new study published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association reveals.
The research aimed to uncover the reason for this link. To do so, researchers divided 280 participants and had them perform tasks that elicited feelings of anger, sadness, anxiety, or neutrality for eight minutes each. They then measured the participants' vascular health before and several times after each task.
Previous research has shown that anger, anxiety, and sadness are linked to an increased risk of heart disease later in life. However, the new study found that only anger had a significant impact on vascular health.
"It seems that anger's adverse effects on health and disease could be due to its influence on vascular health. The health of the blood vessels themselves," said lead study author Dr. Daichi Shimbo, professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at Columbia University in New York City.
While other studies have associated emotions with cardiovascular issues, this one is unique in being a well-designed, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial. This allowed the researchers to better understand the acute changes in blood vessels in response to the emotions they felt.
"This study is one of the first well-done randomized studies that has demonstrated changes in our vasculature in response to our emotions," said Dr. Joe Ebinger, an associate professor of cardiology and director of clinical analytics at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the research.
The study observed three key ways in which anger impacts blood vessel health:
- It made it more difficult for blood vessels to dilate in response to ischemia, or restriction, according to Shimbo.
- It affected cellular markers of injury and their ability to repair themselves.
- The adverse effects of anger on blood vessels persisted for up to 40 minutes after the eight-minute anger-inducing task.
Although this may not seem significant initially, Shimbo believes that repeated exposure to anger could potentially cause long-term damage to blood vessels.
"We suspect that if you're someone who gets angry often, you're chronically damaging your blood vessels," he said, emphasizing that they did not study this, but they theorize that continuous insults from anger could lead to persistent negative effects on blood vessels.
The study's findings could potentially lead to the development of interventions to treat the adverse effects of anger on blood vessels in the future. One possible approach could involve exercise or medication.
"Understanding the mechanism that's there is the first step in being able to help treat it," Ebinger said. "It's not about denying anger but finding ways to control it and minimize it."
Next steps include investigating ways to manage and minimize anger's effects on vascular health. This could involve behavioral therapies such as exercise or medication.
"You can't and shouldn't avoid anger completely," said Dr. Joe Ebinger, an associate professor of cardiology and director of clinical analytics for the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. "The best approach is to learn how to process anger without letting it fester. Think about what might be impeding on your energy or thoughts, what are you protecting yourself from, and what do you need that isn't being met?"
To address anger before it damages blood vessels, it's crucial to understand how to manage it, according to Dr. Brett Ford, associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
"Ask yourself, 'What might be impeding on your energy or thoughts? What are you protecting yourself from? What do you need that isn't being met?' Once you're aware of it, you're in control of it. It's no longer controlling you," Ford advised. "This is the place from which you can decide how to move forward."
These findings could encourage those who frequently experience anger to explore behavioral therapies to manage their emotions and potentially prevent long-term damage to blood vessels. Understanding the mechanisms behind this connection is key to finding ways to treat it.
Read also:
- No food or coffee for three days, just juice, juice, juice instead: a field report
- How to get rid of the flu if you have caught it
- Doctors warn of penis fractures and other injuries during the Christmas season
- Corona or flu epidemic? These pathogens are making us cough and sniffle right now
The new study suggests that managing anger could be crucial for maintaining optimal vascular health, as anger's adverse effects can persist for up to 40 minutes and may lead to long-term damage if experienced frequently. Embracing strategies for anger management, such as exercise or behavioral therapies, could help mitigate these risks, as understanding the mechanisms behind the emotion-cardiovascular health connection is the first step towards finding effective treatment interventions. Promoting wellness practices, which often include anger management techniques, could potentially help individuals prevent or reduce the impact of anger on their blood vessels.
Source: edition.cnn.com
