If you can’t find cold air anywhere this year, you’re not alone. Public life or personal hardships can be enough to trigger an outburst that can cause more damage than just a loss of calm. According to scientists, long-term extreme anger can not only worsen existing health problems, but can also make health problems worse. How we react to certain problems.
“Throughout the day, throughout the week, and throughout the month, we activate these systems when we are frustrated, angry, and furious, and they may be helpful in short-term emergencies,” says the cardiologist. said Dr. Ilan Shor Wittstein. at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. “But in the long term, it can be very harmful for these neurohormonal systems to be activated as often as they are.”
Angry reactions can cause ripple effects throughout the body. Everything is fair, from the cardiovascular system to the nervous system. These are just some of the major organ systems it can wreak havoc on.
heart
According to Dr. Wittstein, an expert on stress cardiomyopathy, also known as “broken heart syndrome,” one way to think about your heart is to imagine home. There may be problems with pipes, doors, or electrical systems, but the house itself may seem okay.
“Anger can affect the arteries that supply blood to the heart, especially the electrical system that tells the heart when to beat, and especially the heart muscle itself. ” he said.
Therefore, if you already have conditions that affect your cardiovascular system, such as high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, or high cholesterol, you may be more susceptible to a sudden heart attack in a moment of extreme anger.
Dr. Wittstein gave the example that when you’re filled with anger, your blood pressure increases, your blood vessels constrict, and your immune system can release inflammatory cells. All of this can lead to the rupture of plaques within the coronary arteries.
If that plaque forms a blood clot, it can cut off the blood supply to that part of the heart. “And that could cause a heart attack that would land you in the hospital, or even cause you to collapse and die from a sudden heart attack,” he says.
brain
In some ways, anger can have positive physical effects in that it motivates you to get up and do something. When we are angry and excited, our brains are primed for quick reactions. When there is a danger or social threat that triggers an angry state, we are more likely to act on it. That is, the fight or flight response.
One possible trade-off is that in that excited state, we are less likely to make good decisions, listen to certain information, or be attuned to other motivations that are important to humans, such as values. That’s true, said university professor Dr. Lois Lee. Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago.
“You may often hear people say or do things in an angry state that they don’t really like,” Dr. Lee says. “And when you’re not angry, you feel remorseful and wish you hadn’t done that.”
Anger and chronic stress can also affect memory, making it “less efficient,” says Dr. Ory Ettingin, an internist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell University.
“Forget the fact that you’re probably sleep-deprived too, but you’re definitely not paying enough attention to things,” she added.
intestine
You may have heard of the oft-discussed “gut-brain connection” between our emotions and our stomachs. Like other emotions, anger and anger can cause gastrointestinal discomfort, food malabsorption, and loss of appetite.
“The gastrointestinal tract is made up of muscle tissue and is innervated by nerves, so when adrenaline secretion is very high, the stomach and intestines become hypermobile,” Dr. Etingin said. . “You’re going to have cramps and diarrhea because the muscles there are overactive.”
According to Dr. Matthew Berg, a clinical psychologist and professor at Yale School of Medicine, you can reduce these risks by making small changes to your daily routine. “It’s nearly impossible to avoid feelings of anger, but meditation, breathing exercises, fitness, and a good night’s rest are all ways to help manage anger,” Dr. Berg said.
“If we all grew up understanding that, we probably wouldn’t be as stressed and angry as we are,” he says.
