- Black people less likely to die from heart disease triggered by anger
- Experts believe black people are more resilient when it comes to hostility
- Anger levels and cardiovascular deaths were measured from 1,600 people
Hostility has often been linked with being bad for our hearts – but could your skin colour be the reason you die earlier?
White people are more likely to suffer heart disease triggered by anger than black people, a new study claims.
Research from the University of Michigan found white adults who behaved in an aggressive manner were 40 per cent more likely to develop deadly cardiovascular problems.
White adults who behaved in a more aggressive manner were 40 per cent likely than black people to develop deadly cardiovascular problems, experts found
This was true despite a larger proportion of black participants in the study having mental and physical health problems.
Experts believe it could be due to a sense of resilience which black people have developed over the years – leaving white people more sensitive to the effects of anger.
Dr Shervin Assari, from the University of Michigan, said: ‘This suggests white people are more vulnerable to the bad effects of hostility and anger on cardiovascular system.
‘On the contrary, black people may have developed a type of resilience to a wide range of psychosocial risk factors including but not limited to hostility and anger.’
‘This new finding is in line with our previous findings that education, self-rated health, depression, and sense of control over time are more important risk factors for white people than black people.
‘So, whatever black people’s resilience is, it is consistent and systematic and works across the board.’
Anger levels were measured from nearly 1,600 participants between 2001 and 2011 to measure their baseline hostility and anger.
They noted whether the person was more likely to turn their anger inwards or to express it outwardly through verbal or physical assault.
Deaths due to cardiovascular disease were then tracked for a 10-year period as they found the result was the same in both genders.
Experts from the University of Michigan believe it could be down to a sense of resilience which black people have developed – leaving white people more sensitive to effects of anger
Previous research found having a violent temper increases the risk of a heart attack by eight times.
A family row, road rage and work disputes are enough to send your blood pressure through the roof, invoking furious reactions.
And for those experiencing high levels of anxiety, the risk of suffering a heart attack in the hours after an outburst, is nine and a half times greater, scientists discovered.
Dr Thomas Buckley, from the University of Sydney, Australia, said: ‘While the absolute risk of any one anger episode triggering a heart attack is low, our data demonstrates that the danger is real and still there.’
He added the increased risk of a heart attack following intense anger or anxiety is ‘most likely the result of increased heart rate and blood pressure, tightening of blood vessels and increased clotting, all associated with triggering of heart attacks’.