Bottling Up Anger at Work May Increase Heart Attack Risk

Posted on December 10, 2009 in Business/Law, Health & Medicine, Recent Studies

Men who stifle their anger about work-related matters are up to five times more likely to suffer from a heart attack than those who allow their frustration to show, according to a new Swedish study.

The Stress Research Institute in Stockholm examined 2,755 employed men who had not suffered from heart attacks from 1992 to 2003. By the end of the study, 47 of the men had either had a heart attack or died from heart disease. These cases often coincided with members of the group who had been silently coping with unfair treatment at work.

“Covert coping” meant “letting things pass without saying anything,” despite feeling that an injustice had been done. The researchers found that men who used these coping techniques had two to five times more of a risk of developing heart disease than those who were more confrontational at work.

Although the researchers did not directly identify “healthy” coping mechanisms, they said that “protesting directly” or “talking to the person right away” could be beneficial. The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.