A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association reveals that anger could negatively impact the function of blood vessels.
The study found that when adults became angry after recalling past experiences, the function of cells lining the blood vessels was negatively damaged.
This impairment may restrict blood flow, potentially increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Previous research has linked feelings of negative emotions, particularly anger, with heart attacks and other cardiovascular disease events.
The research, led by Dr. Daichi Shimbo, a professor of medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, provides new findings of the effects of negative emotions on cardiovascular health.
The cardiovascular system consists of the heart, blood vessels, and blood. Its primary function is to transport nutrients and oxygen-rich blood to all parts of the body and to carry deoxygenated blood back to the lungs.
Abnormalities or injuries to any or all parts of the cardiovascular system can result in serious health complications. Common conditions that can affect the cardiovascular system include coronary artery disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, and stroke.
Interestingly, the study found that situations of anxiety and sadness did not trigger the same change in the functioning of the blood vessel lining.
The study involved 280 adults who were randomly assigned to one of four emotional tasks for 8 minutes.
These tasks included recalling a personal memory that made them angry, recalling a personal memory of anxiety, reading a series of depressing sentences that evoked sadness, or repeatedly counting to 100 to induce an emotionally neutral state.
Researchers assessed the cells lining each study participant’s blood vessels before the tasks and at several points after, looking for evidence of impaired blood vessel dilation, increased cell injury, and/or reduced cell repair capacity.
The analysis found that tasks that recalled past events causing anger led to an impairment in blood vessel dilation, from zero to 40 minutes after the task.
The impairment was no longer present after the 40-minute mark. There were no statistically significant changes to participants’ blood vessel linings at any time points after experiencing the anxiety and sadness emotional tasks.
