Next time your roommate steals your soda from the fridge, be forewarned: If you blow up at him, that shaving cut may take up to twice as long to heal.
A recent study conducted at Ohio State University uncovered a connection between emotions and the healing process – those who can’t control anger or stress take longer to heal from physical injury.
The study, a result of Ohio State clinical psychology student Jean-Philippe Gouin’s whim, confirms theories borne from previous studies in which health experts examined connections between mental health and physical health.
“More and more, we are seeing that emotions are connected to our physical well-being,” said Ben Douglas, University Health Center director. “This further illustrates that connection.”
Gouin said he had been examining different characteristic personalities in his graduate studies when he got the idea. He saw that anger caused hyperemotional activity that affected a person’s physical state.
“You have a higher heartbeat, you breathe faster,” Gouin said.
People who are angry also secrete more cortisol, a hormone connected with stress. When Gouin gave his 98 test subjects blisters on their arms, those who suppressed their anger or let it out more calmly healed over a period of four days on average. However, those who tried but couldn’t manage to hold in rage secreted more cortisol and were four times as likely to take more than four days to heal. In general, people who had clinical anger problems healed the slowest.
Higher cortisol secretion and slower healing may or may not be connected, but the study may still be an important step toward improved health care.
“The idea is, if we could devise a treatment to help patients control their anger before surgery, they wouldn’t have to stay in the hospital as long,” Gouin said.
If it holds true, such a concept would be in the best interest of both the hospital and the patient. For the former, more beds would be free at any given time if patients took less time to heal. For the latter, hospital bills would be significantly lower and patients would risk fewer medical complications.
So how can people who stress or break out in temper tantrums often ensure a faster healing process? “Find a good balance between the two,” Gouin said. “Try to control and think about your angry feelings before acting on them.”
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