It’s no exaggeration, people can really be “angered to death”!

Review expert: Wu Xinsheng, deputy chief physician of gastroenterology department

"I'm so pissed off!"

Although people always say this when they are angry, it is obvious that most people do not think that people will really be angry to death. They just think that this is at most an exaggerated rhetorical device.

Source: Stills from a TV series

But in fact, "anger" can cause far more harm to the human body than we imagine. Not to mention that "anger is harmful to the body", extreme anger can even be fatal.

What changes will occur in the human body when you are angry?

When we are angry about something and show angry emotions, the amygdala, hippocampus, and limbic system of the human brain will respond quickly, prompting the adrenal medulla to regulate the secretion of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones increase the body's sensitivity, increase excitability, reduce risk perception, and reduce inhibition of anger expression, causing our body to enter a "fight or flight" survival response.

Source: Pexels

Although anger may look different for each person, it actually produces similar physiological reactions inside the body, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure, increased breathing, increased body temperature, muscle tension (sometimes leading to clenching of the hands or jaw, grinding of teeth, or the need to move around), increased sweating (especially on the palms), flushing of the face (and possible headaches), etc.

It can be seen that when you are angry, your whole body will be affected, and this may cause systemic health problems.

Frequent anger can cause many diseases

However, if you get angry frequently, it will not only cause the minor problems mentioned above, but will inevitably lead to many serious diseases.

Cardiology: Leading to myocardial ischemia and hypoxia When people are extremely angry, the secretion of adrenaline and norepinephrine increases, the coronary artery vessels contract and spasm, causing insufficient blood supply to local areas, which can easily lead to myocardial ischemia and hypoxia, causing angina pectoris and myocardial infarction, and even arrhythmia and cardiac arrest, increasing the possibility of sudden death.

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Gastroenterology: prone to gastric bleeding People often have the experience of "good mood, delicious food", and often say "I am so angry, how can I eat more", which shows that emotions are closely related to appetite, and different emotional reactions have different effects on the gastrointestinal tract. For example, frequent depression may lead to peptic ulcers, excessive sadness may cause gastrointestinal mucosal erosion, and frequent irritability and anger may easily cause gastric bleeding.

Hepatobiliary Surgery: Susceptible to liver disease When angry, the human body secretes a substance called "catecholamine" that acts on the central nervous system, causing blood sugar to rise and fatty acid decomposition to intensify, thereby increasing toxins in the blood and liver cells. The liver is rich in sympathetic nerves. In addition to "catecholamine" causing toxins in liver cells to increase, anger and sadness can also affect blood pressure, further leading to ischemia of liver cells, affecting the repair and regeneration of liver cells.

Gynecology: Women should know that being nervous and losing temper often can easily lead to endocrine disorders. Endocrine disorders affect all organs of the body, and the reproductive system is most closely related to hormones. Hormone disorders can easily cause pathological changes in target organs. The occurrence of uterine fibroids is caused by excessively high estrogen levels.

Respiratory Department: Anger hurts the lungs. When you are angry and overly emotional, your breathing will become rapid, and you may even hyperventilate. The consequence is that the alveoli continue to expand, and you cannot relax and rest normally, which can easily lead to respiratory alkalosis and paralysis of the hands and feet. Severe cases can also lead to "pneumothorax", as we say, "the lungs are blown up", at which time the lungs are indeed broken, and the gas in the lungs immediately enters the chest cavity, and the pressure in the pleural cavity increases, resulting in obstruction of venous return to the heart, which will cause varying degrees of cardiopulmonary dysfunction.

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Dermatology: Anger makes the skin worse. Anger can lead to an increase in the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn leads to a decrease in two immune cells that are closely related to human tissue repair, which in turn leads to a significant decrease in the speed of skin healing. People with bad tempers have poorer skin self-repair ability and slower wound healing.

Breast Surgery: Anger is the natural enemy of the breast. Most women will feel obvious chest pain when they are angry. Frequent mood swings, mood swings, anxiety and depression can easily lead to diseases such as breast cancer and breast hyperplasia.

How to be an emotionally stable person?

Since being angry for a long time or being furious frequently is so bad for your health, what are some effective ways to relieve your emotions?

There are many methods, which can be simply divided into two categories. One is recommended for long-term persistence, and the other is for adjustment when you are angry.

In fact, most people know the long-term and effective methods, which are nothing more than exercise, meditation, listening to music, painting, reading, talking to someone, etc., to keep their emotions calm and stable.

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The more critical question is how can we quickly regulate our anger when we are angry?

Jill Bolte Taylor, a famous neuroscientist, specializes in studying people's behavior in a negative state. Her research shows that from the moment a person is angered by something, until the body is filled with cortisol, then taking action (or not taking action), and finally the hormone is broken down and excreted from the body, the total process is 90 seconds. That is to say, our anger lasts at most 90 seconds, but the problem is that we will think about it endlessly, which is equivalent to extending it by another 90 seconds. Thinking about it again unconsciously extends it by another 90 seconds...

How to solve this BUG? In fact, after we spend 90 seconds of anger, there is likely to be a "buffer time". This buffer time will most likely allow us to think more comprehensively about the problem we are facing. For example, if we lose our phone, we will think: "Why am I so stupid? What should I do with the information in my phone? Go buy another new phone..." There are solutions to the problem in these voices. Once we enter this "buffer time", it is the beginning of solving the problem, instead of entering the "90-second" cycle again and constantly thinking about the matter.

Different individuals have different personalities and different event sizes, so the time to enter the buffer zone is also different. We can consciously strengthen and tell ourselves that when the buffer time appears, we must enter as soon as possible; or we can sort out the buffer ideas and write them down, making a flow chart "Is this really the case? Can I change it? Can I accept it and do something?"

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We may feel unhappy, but we can also transform from unhappiness to a positive emotion of "I can cope with it". Don't be angry, don't be angry, cherish life, and reduce anger!