Anger may raise heart attack risk: study
BEIJING – There is transiently higher risk of having a heart attack following an outburst of anger, according to researchers of the Harvard School of Public Health.
Data from studies of thousands of people showed, in two hours immediately after an angry outburst, risk of a heart attack increased nearly five-fold and risk of stroke increased more than three-fold.
The Harvard researchers were quoted by media reports as saying Tuesday, at a population level, the risk with a single outburst of anger is relatively low, But the risk is cumulative, meaning temper-prone individuals will be at higher risk still.
Five episodes of anger a day would result in around 158 extra heart attacks per 10,000 people with a low cardiovascular risk per year, increasing to about 657 extra heart attacks per 10,000 among those with a high cardiovascular risk, according to researchers calculate.
It’s unclear why anger might be dangerous – the researchers point out that their results do not necessarily indicate that anger causes heart and circulatory problems.
Source: Xinhua
Published: 05 Mar 2014
