Anger can cause health problems

People who remain angry for considerable periood of time may be putting their health more at risk than others.

Reserachers of University of California, Berkeley, had found that feeing angry for a very long time may cause health hazards like lowering of the immune functions, urge to pick up habits like smoking and drinking, or inducing stress in your life.

Reserachers who had done a survey of the literature that had tried to relate to various health factors and emotions through studies, have found out that hostility may be one of the major health risks and can even cause death from cardiac related issues. In one study, reserachers had found that for men with a history of cardiovascular disease and postmenopausal women with history of heart disease, the risk of a second heart attack may incresae under the feelings of hostility. Another study had shown that the most common form of stroke, called ischemic stroke, threatened at least 40% of the people who had an intensely angry or upsetting experience in the past couple of hours before the stroke.

The researchers recoomend several therapies to control anger and take steps to control the situation that triggers the anger.

Reference: UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, July 2005