Chronic Anger May Contribute to High Blood Pressure

A recent study in the Annals of Family Medicine shows that getting angry on a regular basis may shorten the path to heart disease in men with prehypertension (blood pressure above normal but less than the high blood pressure range).

Data came from 2,334 U.S. adults aged 48-67. They were followed for four to eight years during the 1990s.

Compared with less angry men, chronically angry men with prehypertension were moderately more likely to develop high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart disease during the study.

The same wasn't true of women, perhaps because few women developed heart disease during the study, note Marty Player, MD, colleagues. For men and women alike, long-term psychological stress was linked to heart disease. The results didn't change when the researchers factored in participants' age, sex, race, smoking status, and LDL ("bad") cholesterol.

The take away message is if you find you get angry often, you need to find ways to eliminate or control it better.