Men who respond to stress with anger early in life increase their risk of heart disease and heart attack before the age of 55. Researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine studied more than 1000 men over a period of 32 to 48 years. They wanted to determine whether cardiovascular disease was related to anger responses to stress early in life. Just over one-third of the men developed heart disease, and 7.9 percent got it before the age of 55, which is considered premature heart disease.

Those with the highest anger responses - i.e., who reported responding to stress with expressed or concealed anger, gripe sessions and irritability during medical school - had a three times greater likelihood of developing premature heart disease than those with low anger responses. And, they were six times more likely to have a heart attack before the age of 55.

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Source: Chang PP, Ford DE, Meoni LA. Anger in young men and subsequent premature cardiovascular disease. Archives of Internal Medicine. April 22, 2002;162:901-906. (Abs.)