He's hot but he's also a hothead. You
just pass it off as his way of venting and getting it out of his system.
After all it's probably good to get whatever it is off his chest.
Well, not so according to new research.
Hotheaded men who explode with anger seem
to be at greater risk of having a stroke or dying, new research shows.
Their risk is even greater than men who are simply stressed-out Type A
personalities.
Angry women, on the other hand, don't run
as high a risk of having a stroke or heart problems, according to a study
released Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
The study showed that men who express their
anger have a 10 percent greater risk than non-hostile men of developing an
atrial fibrillation, a heart flutter that 2 million Americans have. It is
non-threatening for many, but it can also increase the risk of stroke.
Men who unleashed their anger were also 20
percent more likely to have died from any cause during the study.
"There has been a perception that you
can dissipate the negative health effects of anger by letting anger out
instead of bottling it up," said Dr. Elaine Eaker, lead researcher
and president of Eaker Epidemiology Enterprises in Chili, Wis. "But
that was not the case in this study."
It also found that men who are generally
hostile and contemptuous of other people are 30 percent more likely to
develop the irregular heart rhythm than men with less hostility.
Atrial fibrillation can lead to stroke
because the heart's two upper chambers don't beat effectively enough to
pump out all the blood, allowing it to pool, form clots and increase
stroke risk.
The study analyzed more than 3,000 adult
children of the original participants of a landmark study begun in 1948 in
Framingham, Mass. That study followed 1,769 men and 1,913 women who had no
signs of heart disease for 10 years.
Eaker said that the findings mean
scientists can say with more confidence that anger and hostility serve as
an independent risk factor. The researchers also determined there is no
increased risk in men who rate high in Type A behavior - men who are often
rushed, impatient and competitive.
Even when other risk factors were accounted
for, such as other heart problems, high blood pressure, cholesterol and
age, certain men still developed an irregular heartbeat.
"It was related to their attitude and
temperament," said Eaker, who conducted the study with colleagues at
Boston University and the Framingham study.
Researchers did not find a significant link
between anger and hostility and the risk of developing atrial fibrillation
in the women in the study.
Men have more heart disease at a younger
age than women, so researchers may need to follow the women longer, Eaker
said.
