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[ChinaMovieMagic]

http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/FivePrecepts/AngerKills.html

June 26, 1996
Research: Anger kills

by Sean McMann

(CNN) -- Are you easily angered by common stress sources, like traffic or the wait at the checkout line? And you feel the need to express that anger in a vocal, violent way? You may possess what the head of behavioral research at Duke University calls a "hostile personality."

In his best-selling book "Anger Kills," Dr. Redford Williams sounds a strong warning to those -- typically males -- who have an angry response to everyday setbacks. According to the Duke professor, those with high hostility levels are four to seven times more likely to be dead of coronary disease and other causes by age 50.

Williams says those with hostile personalities are stressing their bodies out by calling on them over and over again to go into "fight or flight" mode -- in essence putting the body on alert to handle external attacks.

He says the chronic use of this response over time may be causing the "wear and tear on the whole body -- cardiovascular, immune system, stomach, you name it."

Williams says the body prepares itself to handle a perceived threat, such as a job conflict or traffic stress, in the same way it prepares for an actual physical attack. The brain releases the hormone noradrenalin directly into the heart, causing it to work up to five times harder than normal.

Meanwhile, the diameter of blood vessels throughout the body decreases, forcing blood into muscles and raising blood pressure dramatically.

All of these changes help your body function at optimum capacity in an actual life-threatening situation, Williams says. "On the other hand, if you're merely sitting in traffic or waiting in a supermarket line, all these changes still take place, but serve no useful function," he said.


Williams' research also showed that when a person gets angry, fat is released into his bloodstream. If it isn't burned off through exercise, the fat will simply turn into cholesterol, he said. (128K AIFF or WAV sound)

In fact, intense and frequent aerobic exercise is just what Williams and other experts recommend to help reduce the fat, let off the steam, and ensure that your arteries are never as clogged as the freeway home from work.

Though research shows men are more likely to be aggressively angry, women are also prone to the same physical ailments associated with anger.

[Sinobear]

On the other side of the coin:

Working With Idiots Can Kill You!
Thursday November 21, 2002
By KATE McCLARE

STOCKHOLM -- Idiots in the office are just as hazardous to your health as cigarettes, caffeine or greasy food, an eye-opening new study reveals. In fact, those dopes can kill you!

Stress is one of the top causes of heart attacks -- and working with stupid people on a daily basis is one of the deadliest forms of stress, according to researchers at Sweden's Lindbergh University Medical Center.

The author of the study, Dr. Dagmar Andersson, says her team studied 500 heart attack patients, and were puzzled to find 62 percent had relatively few of the physical risk factors commonly blamed for heart attacks.

"Then we questioned them about lifestyle habits, and almost all of these low-risk patients told us they worked with people so stupid they can barely find their way from the parking lot to their office. And their heart attack came less than 12 hours after having a major confrontation with one of these oafs.

"One woman had to be rushed to the hospital after her assistant shredded important company tax documents instead of copying them. A man told us he collapsed right at his desk because the woman at the next cubicle kept asking him for correction fluid -- for her computer monitor.

"You can cut back on smoking or improve your diet," Dr. Andersson says, "but most people have very poor coping skills when it comes to stupidity -- they feel there's nothing they can do about it, so they just internalize their frustration until they finally explode."

Stupid co-workers can also double or triple someone's work load, she explains. "Many of our subjects feel sorry for the drooling idiots they work with, so they try to cover for them by fixing their mistakes. One poor woman spent a week rebuilding client records because a clerk put them all in the 'recycle bin' of her computer and then emptied it -- she thought it meant the records would be recycled and used again."

[ChinaMovieMagic]

[sigmoid]

I don't know if anger kills but it sure does make a lot of people unhappy. I'm always surprised when people complain so much about others. I'm really glad I have a background in Buddhism.

Granted there are a lot of stupid people out there, but I just don't have time to worry about them and what they do. The path of least resistance leads to good mental health.