The American Heart Association (AHA) recently published a Rapid Access Journal Report to suggest that extreme emotional stress or anger and heavy physical exertion can increase the risk of heart attacks by two times.
In addition, when people are angry or emotional while also exerting themselves physically, their heart attack risk triples.
“Previous studies have explored these heart attack triggers; however, they had fewer participants or were completed in one country, and data are limited from many parts of the world,” Dr. Andrew Smyth, lead author and researcher at the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Canada, said. “This is the first study to represent so many regions of the world, including the majority of the world’s major ethnic groups.”
Despite this news, the research does not eliminate the need for regular, appropriate physical exercise to improve cardiovascular health and reduce the risk of heart attacks.
“Regular physical activity has many health benefits -- including the prevention of heart disease -- so we want that to continue,” Smyth said. “However, we would recommend that a person who is angry or upset who wants to exercise to blow off steam not go beyond their normal routine to extremes of activity.”
