How anger affects the body

Lost your temper? Your heart, your brain, and your guts take notice.

If your coldness was nowhere to be found this year, you're not alone. Public life and personal struggles have provided ample material for flare-ups that, in addition to costing your temper, can also have more serious consequences: according to scientists, prolonged and extreme anger can also exacerbate health problems. systems, as well as affect how we respond to certain issues.

"Throughout the day, week, and month, we activate these systems for periods of frustration, anger, or rage that in the short term might help you in an emergency,” said Dr. Ilan Shor Wittstein, cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. "But in the long term, it could be very detrimental to how these neurohormonal systems are activated as often as they are for these cases."

The reactions of anger can cause a ripple effect throughout the body: from the cardiovascular system to your nervous system, it's all fair game. These are just a few of the major organ systems it can wreak havoc with.

The heart

According to Dr. Wittstein, an expert in stress cardiomyopathy , also known as "Broken Heart". syndrome", one way of thinking about the heart is to imagine a house: there may be problems with the pipes, doors or the electrical system, but the house itself may appear to be in good condition.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">"Rabies can affect the arteries that supply blood to the heart, it can affect the electrical system in particular that tells the heart when to beat, and it can have a specific effect on the heart muscle itself," he says.

So if you are already living with conditions that affect the cardiovascular system such as high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms or high cholesterol, moments of extreme anger can make you more vulnerable to a sudden heart attack.

When you're filled with rage, Dr. Wittste For example, blood pressure may increase, blood vessels may constrict, cells inf lammatory cells are released by the immune system. All of this can cause the plaque inside the coronary artery to rupture.

If this plaque forms a clot, the blood supply to that part of the heart can be interrupted. "And it can either cause a heart attack that lands a person in the hospital, or a person can even die of a sudden heart attack," he said.

The brain

In a sense, anger can have a positive physical effect in that it can motivate you to get up and do something. When we are angry and excited, our brains are primed for quick reactions. If there is a social danger or threat that triggers an anger state, we are more likely to act: the fight or flight response.

A possible trade-off: In this restless state, we're less likely to make good judgments, listen to certain information, and tune in to other motivations that are important to humans like values, Dr. Royce said. Lee, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago.

"You can often hear an angry person say or do something they don't don't really like," Dr. Lee said. "And if they're not angry, they'll regret it and wish they hadn't."

According to NewYork-Presbyterian internist Dr. Orli Etingin /Weill Cornell, anger and chronic stress also affect our memory, preventing it from "working very well".

"Forget the fact that you're probably sleep deprived too," she added, "but you sure can't pay attention to things."

The Gut - discussed the connection between our emotions and our stomachs. Like other feelings, anger and rabies can trigger gastrointestinal discomfort, food malabsorption and loss of appetite.

"The gastrointestinal tract is made up of muscle tissue and is innervated by nerves. . So if you have a worm...