Lung capacity normally declines as a person ages but being angry can speed up the process according to new research.
In a study of 670 men ranging in age from 45 to 86, they found that males who had higher levels of long-standing anger at the start of the eight-year project had significantly poorer lung function at the end of it.
“This study is one of the first to show prospectively that hostility is associated with poorer pulmonary function and more rapid rates of decline among older men,” said Dr Rosalind Wright, of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.
Even after taking account of other factors such as smoking that can also have an impact on lung power, hostility and anger had a negative effect.
Anger, hostility and stress have also been associated with heart disease, asthma and other ailments.
Wright and her team suggested that the negative emotions could change biological process and may disturb the immune system and cause chronic inflammation.
“Stress-related factors are known to depress the immune function and increase susceptibility to or exacerbate a host of diseases and disorders,” said Dr Paul Lehrer, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in an editorial in the journal.
He added that it is unknown how chronic anger contributes to physical deterioration but said the researchers established a link between chronic anger and age-related deterioration in lung function.
-Thorax
Dr. Keith and Laurie Nemec’s comments on anger speeds up deterioration of the lungs.
This research confirmed the link between mind, emotion and body. Everything in your health, your total health has a body, mind, and emotion connection. It’s nice to see it backed up in the research. In this study it showed that males that had a higher levels of long standing anger, had significantly poor lung function in the eight year project of studying them. What the research team showed, was that negative emotions could change biological process. That may disturb the immune system and cause chronic inflammation. Also it showed that stress related factors are known to depress the immune function, increase the susceptibility to or exacerbate a host of disease and disorders. So what is this saying? What you do to the mind you do to the body and also reverse what you do to the body you do to the mind. So, if I’m under stress, if I’m holding anger and hostility, I’m going to cause inflammation in my body and that inflammation is going to lead to a weakened body, more susceptible to inflammation and disease of the immune system and all other systems of the body. So, this actually physically showed it in the research how mind affects body, but also on the other side, body affects mind. What you do to the body you do to the mind. This can be seen very easily from a diet point of view. See how kids react the day after Halloween and the day after Easter when they receive all the refined sugar from candy. Teachers will tell you these are the worst days of the school years. Kids are hyperactive, they exhibit attention deficit disorder, and they are very unmanageable on those days. So, the mental, emotional pattern was dictated by the diet or the food that went into the body physically. So one must live a total health lifestyle which revolves around the
Seven Basic Steps to Total Health™.
When we live the 7 Basic Steps each and every day we are leading a healthy lifestyle that will balance the body, the mind and emotions. So, we will know that when we live the 7 Basic Steps we’re taking care of the physical body which will balance the mind and emotions, and then also we know that when we’re living a life that is connected to God and this is where the prayer, meditation and stillness come in, that reduces the mental, emotional stresses, the angers, the hostilities and that in turn will help heal the physical body.
