Blood pressure rise due to anger lasts longer in hostility

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Blood pressure rise due to anger lasts longer in hostility

In other research founds that turning one's attention to some璽hing positive is a good way to allay (平息) anger. But regulating emotions in real life is hard to do.

Previous studies have shown a connection between hostility and heart disease. Now new research suggests that not only do hostile Individuals have higher blood pressures when they are angry, but their blood pressures remain elevated(增高) longer than non-hostile individuals.

Hostile individuals took about 40 seconds longer than non-hostile individuals to return to their nor璵al diastolic(舒张的) blood pres璼ure after recalling a time when they were angry, the researchers report.

Sixty-six older individuals were recruited from community organi瓃ations to participate in the study. None of the subjects were on medication to lower blood pres璼ure. Study participants included 20 African Americans and 46 Caucasian Americans.

All participants were interviewed to assess ‘type A’ behavior and hostility, and to measure levels of competitiveness, anger and time urgency. The emphasis of the in璽erview was on how participants responded to questions rather than what they actually said.

Four types of hostility were not璭d: when a participant evaded(避开) a response or answered in a hostile manner; when the answer put down the interviewer directly or indirectly; when the answer was given in an elevated or changed tone of voice indicating hostility; or when the participant was openly antagonistic(敌对的) towards the interviewer.

Participants were also asked to describe a time when they were angry while their blood pressure levels were assessed.

Half of the participants were rated as having low hostility, and half were found to be highly hos璽ile. The most hostile group had the highest blood pressure as they relived their anger. Their elevated (再体验) diastolic blood pressure remained high for about 80 sec璷nds, compared with the less hostile group, whose blood pres璼ure returned to normal in 42 seconds.

As found in a previous study, African Americans showed longer lasting blood pressure responses to anger.