Being hostile is bad for you, study shows
Wednesday October 28 10:29 AM EDT
dailynews.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aggressively hostile people often have high levels of cholesterol,
researchers said Tuesday.
People who walk around feeling quietly angry are not at risk, but the ''in-your-face'' aggressive type
is, the team at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina found.
''The findings suggest that only certain aspects of hostility, characterized by an outward expression of
anger in a verbal or physical manner and an antagonistic interpersonal style, are potentially coronary
prone,'' they wrote in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Edward Suarez and colleagues looked at 77 healthy young women aged 18 to 26. Most were white.
They filled out a questionnaire meant to assess hostility, with questions about suppressed anger, levels
of resentment and suspicion and other personality traits.
Women who scored high for hostility also tended to have high blood cholesterol, especially the
''bad'' LDL cholesterol that blocks arteries. Those who expressed their anger, as opposed to those
who suppressed it, were the most likely to have high cholesterol.
Suarez's team noted that hostile people in general tended to other unhealthy behaviors, such as
smoking and overeating. They think their findings will extend to other groups besides young, healthy
white women.
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