Anger, Stress and Our Health

I sometimes wonder if these times will be judged by history as the “Golden Age of Gastroenterology,” when physicians in that specialty found their tickets to wealth and comfort punched in the wake of a national epidemic of stress-related acid reflux and ulcers.

Everywhere we turn there is just one more thing to obsess about, raising the stakes in our new national pastime of shrieking unproductively at people with whom we disagree (and will never, ever in a million years change the minds of, no matter how loudly we shriek) and tossing fuel on the bonfire of perpetual outrage.  Granted, it is a presidential election season so expectations of rational discourse and friendly debate are already about as low as we can expect, but now there’s a fun new twist; even beyond the expected partisan bickering between the GOP and Dems, each party’s convention was rocked by internecine protests against their own nominee!  Hillary’s selection was protested by the radically progressive “Bernie or Busters” and The Donald’s by… the mainstream wing’s (??!?!)  “NeverTrumpers.”  Fortunately, conciliatory voices in both parties have stood up to… well, basically insult those daring to criticize the primary winners because condescension is always an effective mind changer!

For police officers – and this in a more serious vein because it’s more immediately personal – we see the continuing tensions between law enforcement and certain communities, particularly those of color and where the sense of “unequal justice under the law” prevails.  Regardless of the truth of that perception – and I am not willing to dismiss the possibility of its truth in some quarters out of hand merely because it makes me uncomfortable, or I can say it’s not true on my beat or with those colleagues I directly work with every day – it exists and is driving the political and sociological conversations around policing in the 21^st Century.  Every new controversy, every new shooting, and each fresh round of debate and derision that arises from them only serves the sense of dread and disgust that festers in the gut, eating away at us as we look on feeling largely helpless.  For officers who have been involved in shootings or other low-frequency/maximum-emotional impact incidents, the constant media coverage – including on sites such as this and through the perpetual social media shares of officers themselves – can be a trigger to reliving the stress and fear of the moment, and anxiety in the aftermath.  We have two friends who, having each survived and thrived following their own officer-involved shootings, are now struggling with stress triggered by the inundating news coverage of others’ experiences years later.   

And so, for cops, everywhere we turn is just one more thing to obsess about, to drive the wedge between us and the very communities we most desperately try to serve, and to eat away at us from the inside out, only to help our future gastroenterologists afford bigger mortgages or a more luxurious Lexus.  Unless, of course, we choose to look away…

Anger, Stress, and the Immune System

The emotions most of us feel in these days of the perpetual news cycle and coast-to-coast coverage of every controversial shooting and allegation of police misconduct – what were formerly only local stories and reflective of little beyond the limited reach of traditional, old-school media delivery – are anger and stress, often in conjunction with and stemming from the other. 

Anger and stress are natural, normal, and a part of everyone’s experience.  Both serve important functions and, in appropriate settings and amounts, should even be accepted and owned for their value to our “fight or flight” instinct, an evolutionary adaptation meant to focus our attention and choose the correct response when faced with a danger.  Problems arise when anger and stress become too common or even constant, as when we fail to elude the source and dissipate the emotions, as is common when the source is constant, or we actively – if counterintuitively – seek it out.  The emotional impact of anger and stress has a profound effect on our physical health, even beyond that sour feeling in the pit of the stomach that can lead to so much gastronomic distress and fatten the wallets of our future gastroenterologists.  In fact, cardiologists, psychiatrists, and a host of other specialists will probably be sharing the wealth. 

Researchers have found that secretory immunoglobulin A (IgA), a key immune system antibody and the first line of defense for our immune systems, is highly susceptible to stress generated by anger.  IgA functions as a protective coating for the cells, defending against invading bacteria or viruses, and stress decreases its levels, leaving us more vulnerable to disease.  Simply remembering a single experience of anger can suppress the immune system for up to six hours.  Imagine, then, the damage inflicted by the fresh and constantly simmering anger so many of us have just become accustomed to feeling.  The damage extends even further, however, as anger has also been directly linked to cardiovascular damage, vascular tension, increased testosterone, and emotional problems caused by measurable changes in brain chemistry. 

How one expresses anger makes a difference: explosively lashing out causes a surge in stress hormones which damage blood vessel linings, leading to increased calcium deposit formation; holding anger in (suppression) increases blood pressure and heart rate and, over time, greatly increases the likelihood of a heart attack.  Along the way, living with anger invites a host of other problems into your life, including both physical and psychological manifestations.  Finding middle ground to sensibly dissipate anger is crucial to our health. 

But how do we do this when so many in media, in order to compete in a saturated field, pull our attention to controversy?  When politicians, to sell a platform, capitalize on anxiety?  When the agenda driven, to bolster their position, emphasize our differences and pit us against each other?  And how do we overcome our own evolutionary biology that drives us to focus on Danger! and react to it defensively, an adaptation that ironically relies on anger and anxiety as a survival tool?  In our next article we will explore one simple counterweight to the anger that eats away at our health and happiness that will actually build our immune systems and bolster our health.