Anger Reduces Lung Function

Are you an “angry” person? Or, are you easy going and not much ever “gets to you?” I fall into the latter category. And, apparently that is a good thing… because a recent study indicates that longstanding anger issues diminish lung function.

Anger speeds decline in lung function: study

“Doctors in the U.S. recruited 670 men aged between 45 and 86, with an average age of 62 and followed them for an average of eight years. Participants’ levels of hostility were measured and rated at the start of the study and lung function measurements were taken three times during the follow-up. The men’s hostility scores were closely linked to lung capacity, after taking into account other factors such as smoking and education that could influence the results, researchers said. Those who became more hostile showed a more rapid decline in lung power than those whose hostility levels were lower. Anger and hostility will change neurological and hormonal processes, which in turn may disturb immune system activity to produce chronic inflammation, Dr. Rosalind Wright of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass., and her colleagues wrote in this week’s online issue of the journal Thorax, published by the British Medical Association.”

Note that anger also dimishes the immune system. Your emotional state definitely ties in to your physical health. Be calm, be happy, stay healthy! “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22 – KJV)