ST. LOUIS -- Talk about something worth getting mad about. Bottling up anger can give you a headache, researchers at Saint Louis University said Monday.
"We found that holding in anger is the biggest predictor of headaches among the group of patients we studied," said Robert Nicholson, assistant professor of community and family medicine. He was the principle investigator for a study recently published in the medical journal Headache.
The study looked at 422 adults, including 171 who suffered from headaches. Nicholson examined how angry a person is, how much he or she internalizes anger and the severity of headaches. He also considered whether the individual was anxious or depressed, since both have been linked to headaches.
Dr. Merle Diamond, associate director of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, said the study confirms what many headache experts have long assumed.
"This wasn't really news to me, but it's one of the first studies we've seen where it's actually documented, where there's a direct correlation," Diamond said.
"We've certainly seen this with some of our patients with anger issues. A lot of people are told, 'You shouldn't be mean to people,' or, 'You have to be a nice person and hold it in.' It kind of eats away at you. One of the eating-away things is a headache."
Diamond suggested that patients punch pillows or find constructive ways to release anger. And Nicholson warned you shouldn't go screaming every time you get mad.
Avoiding anger
"There are times that expressing anger isnt the best thing," he said. "Yelling at your boss could cost you your job. Making an obscene gesture at a driver who cut you off in traffic could lead to road rage.
"What I would hope to do is to help people learn ways to lengthen their fuses so they avoid becoming angry."
Nicholson suggested these strategies:
Take three deep breaths; understand why you feel angry; express yourself, but in non-confrontational ways; change your environment when something happens to make you mad; acknowledge that people make mistakes and that, sometimes, life isn't fair; avoid fretting over things beyond your control.
Perhaps most important, learn to forgive.
"Whether the wound is from someone else or is self-inflicted, the greatest power you have is the ability to forgive and let it go," Nicholson said.
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