Fitness Levels and Anger Levels

Anger can be a killer. Whenever we get angry our bodies release powerful chemicals enter the bloodstream to prepare you to battle or run from the situation. During this “fight or flight response your body enters a high energy state where:

•        Breathing increases and blood is sent to the muscles

•        Your pupils dilate and sharpen your vision

•        Your thoughts become less rational and more emotional and you suffer from distorted thinking

Anger is a natural response that is there to protect us when we feel threatened by something but when we are under some much stress or have so little self-control that we perceive everything to be a threat our health can really suffer.  Aside from increasing your chance of having a heart attack living in a state of chronic anger can cause gastrointestinal problems like irritable bowel syndrome and a lowered immune system that can leave you vulnerable to disease.

Several studies published in Journal (the medical journal of The American Heart Foundation) have shown that anger is not such a great emotion to cultivate and that there is a real correlation between “raging “ and illness.  These studies, that were based on an evaluation scale that measured on an “anger score” (with a higher score putting a person at risk for a heart attack) found that –

•        People who had high anger scores had a three times the risk of having a heart attack

•        Forty percent of people who had high anger scores had the type of hypertension that is known to lead to a coronary event

Angry people produced hormones that cause damage to heart muscles and clogged arteries These studies also found that people who were most inclined to become angry in the first place tended to be male to be smokers and drinkers with a post-secondary or less education. They also tended to have larger waistlines; often a physical trait that is a warning that the person is at risk for a heart attack.  Most of them were also emotional eaters who liked to eat a lot of beef.

One of the benefits of exercise in general is that it can help us to control our anger and give us an outlet for any frustrations we feel. We do not get sick from our feelings.  Aerobic exercise, in particular, can help us work out off the adrenalin and feel better about the situation and ourselves.