Can Anger Cause Heart Attack: “The fire of my soles goes to my head.”, “I feel so angry that four things feel like bursting”. Regardless of the reason, whether your new clothes were splattered with mud by a passing car or a co-worker snuck up on you and stole your credit, the anger you feel can take a toll on your mind and body. It has often been discussed before that excessive anger can lead to heart attack. People find this funny, but it’s actually quite possible from a medical point of view.
More than one study to date has found a correlation between heart attacks and anger outbursts. If we have intense emotions for two hours or more, the blood vessels in the heart can constrict and affect blood flow, resulting in a stroke. Today we are Dr. Head of Interventional Cardiology Department at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute Delhi. In an article written by Nishith Chandra for Indian Express, we are going to know why anger can lead to heart attack.
How does anger increase the risk of heart disease?
Cardiologist Dr. Chandra says that anger increases the body’s levels of certain stress hormones like adrenaline, epinephrine and cortisol. These hormones first increase heart rate and then blood pressure (BP). This increased heart rate and blood pressure can cause headaches, sweating, palpitations, chest pain, and increased anxiety. In such cases, if your blood vessels are not healthy or the arteries are already blocked, the above conditions can cause the plaque to disperse, rupture, or cause blood clots, which can increase the stress on the heart. It can affect the heart by obstructing the blood flow. Excess adrenaline can cause narrowing of the small arteries that supply blood to the heart, causing a temporary decrease in blood flow.
Sometimes, excess adrenaline can bind directly to heart cells, allowing large amounts of calcium to enter the cells. This disrupts the regular beating of the heart and can weaken the heart muscle. This is what we call stress cardiomyopathy.
Who needs anger management?
Those with co-morbidities (high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes) need to control anger. Those with pre-existing heart weakness or bypass surgery should also control anger. For this preferably practice yoga and meditation, this can help you to keep your mind calm. It may not be possible for you not to get angry, getting angry is a natural reaction, so you need to learn how to deal with anger at its core.
To control anger, you can count numbers one to ten to help you calm down. Pranayama, deep breathing, can help balance heart rate and control anger. If you have ever had a very traumatic event and you feel that your anger will explode, you should first try to control your anger, considering the risk of heart disease.
Some researchers have also found that despite being healthy, a person who is constantly angry, irritable, hostile towards others has a 19 percent higher risk of heart disease than calm people. That’s why when you get angry, you should remember that the person you are getting angry with doesn’t really care. Not physically! But instead you are harming yourself
Your outburst should be aimed at solving a problem, but if you’re only irritated by others’ provoking, consider counseling as an alternative to admitting that your emotions are out of control.
