Lung power normally declines as a person
ages but being angry and hostile can speed
up the process, researchers said.
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,
in a report online in the journal Thorax.
The scientists used a scoring system to measures
the levels of anger of each of the men and
they tested their lung power three times during
the study.
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.
"The next step is to determine the exact
pathway by which this happens," said Lehrer.
