SHERIFF
12-24-2003, 10:22 AM
This health report certainly applies to me. :)
Weird Way to Extend Your Lifespan
When you're mad, do this: scream, holler, rant, and rave. People who vent their anger live far longer than people who keep their feelings bottled up, according to new research from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, reports HealthDayNews. People who didn't vent their anger were twice as likely to die as people who let it out.
The study: As part of the ongoing Religious Order Study with elderly priests, brothers, and nuns, neuropsychologist Robert S. Wilson examined the medical records of 851 participants from 1994-2002. The average age of each at the start of the study was 75. Priests and nuns are an excellent study group because they live in almost identical socioeconomic and social worlds, notes HealthDayNews. The goal was to examine how life span is affected by the expression or suppression of anger. Just over 160 of the participants died during the study. Following their deaths, the researchers examined the results of tests the subjects had taken earlier that measured their level of negative feelings and their ability to express it. Although much research has been done on how depression is related to a shorter lifespan and contributes to heart disease, little investigation has been done on how people cope with negative emotions, including anger. "From the time of the ancient Greeks, people have thought that personality and the way you express your emotions are related to health," Wilson told HealthDayNews. "There's a long history of studying that in medicine."
The results: The 10 percent of the priests, brothers, and nuns who were most likely to keep their anger and other negative emotions bottled up were twice as likely to die as the 10 percent on the other end of the scale. If the losers in this life-or-death contest were the "sit and stew" people, the winners were those who said, "I get angry, and I slam a door. I curse a lot." (Yes, even clergy curse.) What is still unknown is how anger--and the management of it--affects our health, including immune system function and the risk for cardiovascular disease. "It is much better to be able to talk things through, but the old 'Saturday Evening Post' cartoon of the husband yelling at the mother who yells at the kid who kicks the dog who bites the cat who claws the mouse remains a classical American coping strategy, no matter how non-politically correct it may be," acknowledged Wilson. You just don't want to be the mouse. The research findings were published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Weird Way to Extend Your Lifespan
When you're mad, do this: scream, holler, rant, and rave. People who vent their anger live far longer than people who keep their feelings bottled up, according to new research from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, reports HealthDayNews. People who didn't vent their anger were twice as likely to die as people who let it out.
The study: As part of the ongoing Religious Order Study with elderly priests, brothers, and nuns, neuropsychologist Robert S. Wilson examined the medical records of 851 participants from 1994-2002. The average age of each at the start of the study was 75. Priests and nuns are an excellent study group because they live in almost identical socioeconomic and social worlds, notes HealthDayNews. The goal was to examine how life span is affected by the expression or suppression of anger. Just over 160 of the participants died during the study. Following their deaths, the researchers examined the results of tests the subjects had taken earlier that measured their level of negative feelings and their ability to express it. Although much research has been done on how depression is related to a shorter lifespan and contributes to heart disease, little investigation has been done on how people cope with negative emotions, including anger. "From the time of the ancient Greeks, people have thought that personality and the way you express your emotions are related to health," Wilson told HealthDayNews. "There's a long history of studying that in medicine."
The results: The 10 percent of the priests, brothers, and nuns who were most likely to keep their anger and other negative emotions bottled up were twice as likely to die as the 10 percent on the other end of the scale. If the losers in this life-or-death contest were the "sit and stew" people, the winners were those who said, "I get angry, and I slam a door. I curse a lot." (Yes, even clergy curse.) What is still unknown is how anger--and the management of it--affects our health, including immune system function and the risk for cardiovascular disease. "It is much better to be able to talk things through, but the old 'Saturday Evening Post' cartoon of the husband yelling at the mother who yells at the kid who kicks the dog who bites the cat who claws the mouse remains a classical American coping strategy, no matter how non-politically correct it may be," acknowledged Wilson. You just don't want to be the mouse. The research findings were published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.