Calm Down to Keep a Healthy Heart

Anger and stress can boost heart disease risk

Anger, hostility and depression can do more than just drag down your mental health. They can be bad for your heart as well.

Researchers have found that angry or depressed people have higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), an indicator of inflammation and a suspected risk factor for heart disease.

"Anger seems to predict an increased risk of heart disease in initially healthy individuals, and several studies have shown that," Edward Suarez, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University , told HealthDay . Suarez authored a study on this relationship, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine .

Past studies identified a connection between anger and heart disease, but Suarez's study was the first to indicate that inflammation played a role in the development of cardiovascular disease, he said.

"This is the first step to link the behavior to this [heart disease] mechanism -- one that's garnering a lot of attention," he said.

To reach their conclusions, the researchers compared CRP levels to levels of anger, hostility and depression in 121 healthy, nonsmoking men and women. All were between 18 and 65 years old. Emotions were measured with standard psychological tests.

After adjusting for known heart disease risk factors, such as obesity and high blood pressure, people who were depressed, angry or hostile had two to three times higher levels of CRP than their happier, calmer counterparts.

It's very important to pay attention to how we can change these behaviors," Suarez said. "I know it isn't easy, though. It's difficult to change patterns of behavior that are intrinsic to who we are as individuals so it's not going to be an overnight thing. But, we can start by saying, 'What gets me angry?' And, 'If I get angry, do I start to feel depressed and withdrawn from my social network?'"

Exercise may help, he said: "If a walk around the park can calm you down, do it."

There may be another reason to calm down: Anger and stress may also trigger dangerous heart arrhythmias, according to a statement from the American Heart Association about an earlier study.

"There is folklore and epidemiological evidence that aggravation can trigger heart attacks, but this [study demonstrated] that mental stress alone can induce specific heartbeat irregularities that identify patients with a high vulnerability to arrhythmias," Willem Kop, an assistant professor of psychology at the U.S. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., said in the statement.