Gaby
A recent study from Columbia University Medical Center in New York sheds new light on how anger affects the cardiovascular system — and helps explain why anger-related stress can trigger heart attacks.
The main conclusion of the study is that anger reduces blood vessels’ ability to dilate.
What the Researchers Discovered
The team enrolled 280 apparently healthy adults who reported no cardiovascular disease or risk factors such as hypertension or diabetes.
Participants were randomly divided into four groups. For eight minutes, the first group discussed experiences that made them angry, the second group talked about experiences that caused anxiety, the third group read sad statements, and the fourth group performed a neutral counting task as an emotional control.
Researchers measured blood flow before the tasks and several times over the next 100 minutes. They found that within 40 minutes after the tasks, participants in the “anger group” showed reduced blood-vessel dilation compared with the control group.
No changes in blood-vessel function were observed in volunteers from the anxiety or sadness groups, Smithsonian Magazine reported.
“It’s surprising that anxiety and sadness do not have the same effect as anger; this suggests that the ways negative emotions contribute to cardiovascular disease may differ,” said Daichi Simbo, the study’s lead author and a cardiologist affiliated with Columbia and Washington universities.
The team said repeated episodes of anger could meaningfully affect cardiovascular health, but they do not yet know the mechanism linking anger to blood-vessel function. They expect future research to uncover how anger impairs vascular dilation.
Patients with existing cardiovascular disease were intentionally excluded from the study because they may already have impaired blood-vessel function.
Looking ahead, researchers should study “populations with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, as well as individuals living in rural areas and members of ethnic and racial minorities,” said Rebecca Campo, a psychologist at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which funded the research.
A limitation of the study is that it examined only short bursts of anger and did not measure the effects of chronic anger. The results were published in the journal JAHA.
What Other Scientists Are Saying
Impaired blood-vessel dilation precedes the buildup of plaque in vessel walls, which can lead to heart attacks, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute said.
“Many people don’t realize anger can provoke heart attacks. This study provides biological plausibility that anger harms the body, raises blood pressure, and contributes to vascular problems,” said Holly Middlkauff, a cardiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“We knew anger-related stress could trigger heart attacks, but we didn’t understand why — this study clarifies a possible mechanism,” said Brian Choi, a cardiologist at George Washington University.
