An angry heart can kill, suggests a study, which found that rage and hostility are significantly linked with a high risk for coronary disease. According to the research, which appears in the latest issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, anger and hostility was harmful to the heart, especially among men.

"Anger and hostility were found to predict a 19 per cent and 24 per cent increase in coronary heart disease events among initially healthy people and those with pre-existing CHD, respectively," says Yoichi Chida of the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College, London [Images], UK.

 "The harmful association of anger and hostility with CHD events in healthy people was greater in men than women. This suggests that the accumulation of stress responses in daily life might have a greater impact on future CHD in men," he stressed.

The authors extensively reviewed the literature on the longitudinal associations of anger and hostility with CHD events, and identified 25 studies of initially healthy populations and 18 studies of patients with CHD, the Science Daily online reported.

"This review provides further evidence that psychological factors do matter in the development and progression of CHD," Johan Denollet of CoRPS research center, Tilburg University, The Netherlands, was quoted as saying in the report.

He said clinicians should take symptoms of anger and hostility seriously, and may consider referring their patient for 'behavioral intervention'.

"We need to closely monitor and study these personality traits in order to do a better job at identifying high-risk patients who are more liable to future fatal and non-fatal coronary events," Denollet stressed.