According to a recently released US study, rage kills, and so do other strong emotions associated with stressful events.  These emotions become deadly when they trigger irregular heart beats (arrhythmia) and cardiac arrest. More than 400,000 people die from sudden cardiac arrest in the United States each year, according to the American College of Cardiology.

Yale University’s Dr. Rachel Lampert reported her team’s findings in the most recent issue of the ‘Journal of the American College of Cardiology.’  The study confirms previous studies that proved an increase in the number of sudden cardiac arrests during times of war and after catastrophic natural disasters such as earthquakes.  One study even found an increased incidence of sudden cardiac arrest after a favored team lost the World Cup Soccer match.

Lampert says her study looked at the heart’s electrical system during stressful events.  Instead of basing her study on an entire population, as previous studies had, she enlisted 62 individuals who had implantable heart defibrillators (ICDs) to combat heart disease.  These devices detect dangerous and irregular heart beats then deliver electrical shocks that restore heart beats to a healthy, regular rhythm.

While using T-Wave Alternans, a test to measure the electrical stability of these patients’ hearts, Lampert’s research team had the study participants recount an episode in their lives that made them angry.  The laboratory tests measured any instability in the electrical activity of the patients’ hearts as they became angry during the experiment.

Each patient was then followed for three years to see who required their implanted defibrillators to deliver a shock and who suffered cardiac arrest.  During this follow-up phase of study, the patients who experienced the most instability in the anger-inducing laboratory test were 10 times more likely to experience dangerous arrhythmias than those who exhibited more stable electrical heart activity under pressure.

Lampert’s study proves the dangerous influence anger and similar emotions can produce on the hearts of people who already suffer from electrical instabilities but she’s quick to acknowledge the study did not include study subjects with healthy hearts.  While this study identifies cardiac disturbance when people already vulnerable to arrhythmias are distressed, there is no evidence the same thing happens to stressed-out people with healthy hearts.

Lampert has launched a new study to explore the benefits of anger management classes on arrhythmic patients most at risk.