Getting angry may increase your risk of a heart attack or stroke for 40 minutes afterwards, study suggests

The next time a cold caller or traffic jam boils your blood, take a deep breath and try to relax. 

For anger really can kill you, US scientists warned today. 

Researchers found brief moments of anger can impair the function of blood vessels, potentially raising the risk of a heart attack or stroke for up to 40 minutes. 

Dr Daichi Shimbo, study author and a professor of medicine at Columbia University, said: 'We saw that evoking an angered state led to blood vessel dysfunction.

'Though we don't yet understand what may cause these changes.'

While some warning signs are easy to spot — such as severe chest pain — others are more vague and hard to pinpoint

Stroke symptoms are commonly remembered under this four-letter acronym, FAST. Patients experiencing a stroke can often have their face drop on one side, struggle to lift both arms and have slurred speech, while time is essential, as immediate treatment for a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke can substantially slash the risk of a much deadlier major stroke

Researchers described this effect as an 'impairment in blood vessel dilation'. 

Interrupted supply of blood can, in theory, lead to a heart attack or stroke. 

Researchers analysed data from 280 volunteers aged 26, on average.

Participants were all instructed to relax for 30 minutes, during which they were not allowed to talk, use their phones, read or sleep. 

A blood pressure reading was taken before each was randomly assigned one of four eight-minute tasks.  

One asked them to remember a personal memory that made them angry.

Others got volunteers to recall a moment of anxiety, or read a series of depressing sentences designed to evoke a feeling of sadness.

A fourth, emotionally neutral task, required participants to count repeatedly to 100.

Blood pressure and vessel dilation measurements were taken after three minutes and again at 40, 70 and 100 minutes later.

Blood samples were also taken to assess cell health.

The researchers found: 'Tasks that recalled past events causing anger led to an impairment in blood vessel dilation, from zero to 40 minutes after the task. 

'The impairment was no longer present after the 40-minute mark.

'There were no statistically significant changes to participants' blood vessel linings at any time points after experiencing the anxiety and sadness emotional tasks.'

Writing in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers, however, acknowledged the small study size however.

They noted it was 'unclear whether the results would apply to older adults with other health conditions, who would most likely be taking medications'. 

Dr Glenn Levine, a professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who wasn't involved with the research, said: 'This study adds nicely to the growing evidence base that mental wellbeing can affect cardiovascular health and that intense acute emotional states, such as anger or stress, may lead to cardiovascular events.

'For instance, we know that intense sadness or similar emotions are a common trigger for Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (broken heart syndrome).

'Events such as earthquakes, or even as a fan watching a soccer match, which provoke stress, may lead to myocardial infarction (a heart attack) and or to arrhythmias.'

This chart shows the mortality rate for cardiovascular disease in the under 75s in England (blue bars) which is the number of deaths per 100,000 people as well as sheer number of deaths (red line). Medical breakthroughs and advanced screening techniques helped lower these figures from 2004, but progress began to stall in the early 2010s before reversing in the last few years of data 

Other - just as common - tell-tale signs of a looming stroke, often fall under the radar. These include sudden numbness on one side of the body, sudden vertigo and difficulty swallowing

Earlier this year, alarming data revealed that premature deaths from cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks and strokes, have hit their highest level in more than a decade.

Cases of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes among the under-75s had tumbled since the 1960s thanks to plummeting smoking rates, advanced surgical techniques and breakthroughs such as stents and statins.

But now, rising obesity rates, and its catalogue of associated health problems like high blood pressure and diabetes, are thought to be one of the major contributing factors. 

Slow ambulance response times for category 2 calls in England — which includes suspected heart attacks and strokes — as well as long waits for tests and treatment have also been blamed for the rise, which is also being felt in younger adults. 

Despite claims from anti-vaxxers, cardiologists say fears that Covid vaccines might have fuelled an increase in heart problems are way off the mark.