A new study by Swedish researchers suggests, men who do not openly exhibit their anger at being unfairly treated at work, only serve to double their risk of suffering a heart attack.

The researchers examining 2,755-male employees in Stockholm, who when the study began had not experienced an heart attack, and were asked about how they coped with conflict at work, either with superiors or colleagues.

According to the researchers writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, their study showed firm evidence of a strong relationship between pent-up anger and heart disease, calling the various strategies for bottling up emotions as covert coping.

The men participating in the study were questioned about the methods they adopted, such as, dealing with things head-on, letting things pass without saying anything, walking away from conflict, whether they developed symptoms like headache or stomach ache, or flew into a bad temper when they reached home.

In addition, they participants aged an average of 41-years when the study began between 1991 and 1995, were also checked for drinking, smoking, physical activity, education, job demands, diabetes and freedom to take their own decisions, including measuring their blood pressure, body mass index and cholesterol levels.

Information on whether any of them had subsequently died of a heart attack or as a result of heart disease in the follow-up period i. e. up to 2003 were gleaned from national hospital treatment and deaths registers. Up to 2003, 47 of the 2,755 men had had a heart attack or died of heart disease.

The study results revealed, in comparison to the men who challenged and dealth with situations head-on, it was the men who coped by walking away or letting things pass that doubled their risk of a heart attack, or dying from serious heart disease.

According to the researchers, anger produces physiological tensions that need to be released and if not, these can lead to an increase in blood pressure, which eventually causes damage to the cardiovascular system.

The study findings confirm the US Framingham Study findings that bottling up anger and frustration harms the heart, with anger boiling under the surface inducing physical reactions like high blood pressure and related ailments.