Anger Raises Heart Attack Risk

Among all the emotions related to psychological stress, anger can often be the most common of reactions.  Elizabeth Mostofsky, from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues completed a systematic review of studies published between 1966 and 2013. They identified nine case crossover studies where patients who had experienced cardiovascular events answered questions about anger. They were asked about their level of anger immediately prior to the cardiovascular event with anger at other times, using terms like very angry, furious or enraged. The researchers report that:  “all studies found that, compared with other times, there was a higher rate of cardiovascular events in the 2 [hours] following outbursts of anger.”