Reports that the link between behavior and heart disease is how you
handle negative emotions, specifically your anger. Study that followed
192 couples; Nine out of twelve men who died of cancer were married to
women who suppressed anger; Study by also; Anger-coping styles also
affected the cardiovascular health of husbands and wives; Details.
By
PT Staff, published on July 01, 1992
Anger
Forget personality. The link between behavior and heart disease is
how you handle negative emotions, specifically your anger. And in the
shared environment of marriage, your anger-coping style can profoundly
affect not only your own but your spouse's health.
In a study that followed 192 couples, nine out of 12 men who died
of cancer were married to women who suppressed anger, University of
Michigan researchers found Men's anger suppression affected the cancer
toll among women, but especially when both were suppressors.
Anger-coping styles also affected the cardiovascular health of
husbands and wives, Mara Julius, Ph.D., reported to the Society of
Behavioral Medicine. Wives were likely to die of cardiovascular disease
if they were high on the anger-suppression index--but even more likely if
their husbands also suppressed their anger.
Men's cardiovascular mortality risk, on the other hand, was not
affected by their wives' anger-coping style. The husbands' own
anger-suppression was a substantial risk in its own right.
"Basic emotions, if suppressed, can cause changes in the balance of
our daily routines," Julius explains. We may take on health-compromising
habits in response to unreleased emotions. Disrupted patterns, especially
of sleep, may also influence the immune system in its etemal vigilance
against cancer.
But why are men and women affected differently? She points to
differences in the support each partner provides the other. Men may be
especially dependent on their wives for emotional and instrumental
support, and this may be withheld if she suppresses anger.
ILLUSTRATION
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