Heart disease and emotions: the interpersonal connection.
By Dr. Lon Jones, D.O.

Doctors at Duke University have demonstrated an association between anger and heart disease. Those in Dean Ornish's group, that first showed heart disease to be reversible, credited group discussions more than diet, exercise or yoga for the reversals they experienced in what had been the progressive closing off of their coronary arteries. During these discussions they were counseled and coached on safe ways to open their hearts to the other members of the group. Opening your heart to others became a real and powerful metaphor for opening the blood vessels in the heart.  What's behind these findings?

At it base anger is directed at someone or something that we feel has hurt us. The person or thing then has power over us. We are lessened and that results in our emotional response of anger. The response that we all feel as humans when we are confronted with a threatening situation is what is called the "flight or fight response." In this response blood pressure rises in order to pump more blood to the muscles in the arms and legs. Their heart rate goes up for the same reason. The blood that normally goes to the stomach and intestines is shunted to the muscles, and the brain is set on high alert. When our ancestors came face to face with a saber tooth tiger those who expressed these characteristics best were able to outrun or outfight the tiger. They lived to pass on those abilities to their children.

Nowadays we have no tigers in our environment, but we live in a society where their part is played by spouses, neighbors, or bosses. So we all have experienced the feelings of anger and frustration associated with not being able to run away from some situations, or the desire to kill the S.O.B. who brought it on. But it's not culturally acceptable to treat other people as if they were saber tooth tigers. So the physical part of the flight or fight response has to be controlled. We sit on it, try not to express it, and build emotional walls around ourselves to protect us from being hurt. Often this leads to a chronic state of arousal where our blood pressure remains high. African Americans are in reality profiled, they are more likely to be blamed for crimes than white people, and they have more hypertension.

There are some other and more worthwhile options. Herbert Benson from Harvard studied and wrote a book on the "relaxation response," the opposite of the flight or fight response. People who use it regularly can lower their blood pressure. Your physician can even write a prescription for a device that monitors your breathing, helping you to master this response. The Heartmath Institute teaches people alternative techniques to help them deal with the tigers in their environments. The bottom line to these alternatives is that we each individually have the control of how to define the situations in our lives and it is much better for our own health to label the offender a jerk than a saber tooth tiger. These techniques help us do that; and they do it by going to the source of the symptoms--ourselves.