It’s long been known that anger and hostility are risk factors for heart disease in men, but few of the studies on these risk factors have included women.

Researchers who conducted a women-only study into the effects of anger and hostility on women’s heart health state that women who exhibit outward expressions of anger may be at increased risk for coronary disease if they also have other risk factors such as age, history of diabetes and a history of unhealthy lipid (fat) levels in the blood.

“Our results appear to differ from the literature on males, particularly young males, in which hostility scores are found to be associated with coronary artery disease. However, the new data, combined with our previous findings, indicate that anger and hostility in women, as in men, do tend to cluster with adverse risk factors,” said Bairey Merz, one of the authors of an article in December, 2006, issue of the Journal of Women’s Health.

The anger and hostility research grew out of the Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) Study, a multi-center, long-term investigation sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Bairey Merz chairs the WISE study and holds the Women’s Guild Chair in Women’s Health at Cedars-Sinai.

Citation: Journal of Women’s Health, Published Online Dec. 2006, “Anger, Hostility, and Cardiac Symptoms in Women with Suspected Coronary Artery Disease: The Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) Study”

Outwardly expressed anger affects some women’s heart arteries