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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/11/health/11ATRI.html?tntemail0

At Risk: Blow a Gasket, for Your Heart

By ERIC NAGOURNEY

tudies have suggested that people who have a lot of anger may be at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, but a new report finds that the relationship may not be so clear.

For men who express some of that anger, the researchers say, the risks may be lower.

Writing in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, the researchers report that among the men studied — more than 23,000 over two years — those with moderate expressions of anger had about half the risk of nonfatal heart attacks as those with low expression of anger. The rate of strokes was also lower.
"It is a more complex picture than has been perhaps previously posed," said the lead author of the study, Dr. Patricia Mona Eng, who conducted the study as a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study was based on information generated by the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, a continuing look at the health of more than 50,000 men, including dentists, veterinarians and pharmacists.

The men who participated in the anger study were asked in a survey to describe how they handled anger. "I do things like slam doors," was one choice, as was "I argue with others."

The men had no known cardiovascular problems when the survey was given. Two years later, the researchers followed up and found that 328 had developed symptoms.

Dr. Eng cautioned that the study was limited by its relatively short time span and by the demographics of the participants, who tended to be better educated, older and more financially secure than the overall population.

In general, she said, the levels of anger among the participants were lower than those found in other studies among more diverse groups.

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