Proverbs 14 · Subject · Anger
Anger and the Heart
Medical research since 1995 has measured how anger bears on the heart, and Scripture spoke of the same harm long before.
While David played the harp as usual, King Saul hurled his spear at him, thinking, “I will pin David to the wall” (1 Samuel 18:10 to 11).
A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly. A tranquil heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
- Books
- Proverbs, Psalms, Job, 1 Samuel
- Hold in memory
- Psalm 37:8, Job 5:2, Proverbs 14:30
Summary
Scripture speaks of anger as a harm to the one who keeps it and calls the angry to let it go. Medical research on anger and the heart has looked at the same harm with its own tools, in long studies of whole populations and in interviews with patients after a heart attack. Its findings agree with the warnings of Proverbs.
- People prone to anger and hostility had more coronary heart disease over the years they were followed.
- Heart attacks and strokes came more often in the hours just after an outburst of anger.
- The studies show links across groups and leave the causes unmeasured.
What Scripture Says of Anger and the Body
Proverbs, Psalm 37, Job and the story of Saul speak of what anger does to the angry.
Anger and the Heart asks what anger does to the body, and what medical research on anger and heart disease adds to what Scripture says. The question belongs to the trial of anger, and many readers have heard that a hot temper strains the heart.
This study gives the texts of Scripture as the ground, four studies with their findings, the two kinds of link they measured, and what the research leaves unmeasured. It reads the research as support for what Scripture says, never as the ground of it.
Refrain from anger and abandon wrath; do not fret—it can only bring harm.The verse stands here because it gives the reason to let anger go in the same breath as the command.
Four Studies Side by Side
The studies span the years 1995 to 2014 and three journals of cardiology.
All four studies tie anger to heart attacks or other cardiovascular events.
| Study | Who or what was studied | What was found |
|---|---|---|
| Chida and Steptoe, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2009 | A meta-analysis of 25 studies of initially healthy people and 19 studies of people with coronary heart disease | Anger and hostility went with more coronary events in the healthy (hazard ratio 1.19) and a poorer outcome in heart patients (1.24); the effect in the healthy was greater in men |
| Williams, Paton, Siegler, Eigenbrodt, Nieto and Tyroler, Circulation, 2000 | 12,986 black and white men and women of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study | High trait anger went with more coronary heart disease (hazard ratio 1.54) and more heart attacks and coronary deaths (1.75); among those with normal blood pressure 2.20 and 2.69; no significant link among those with high blood pressure |
| Mittleman, Maclure, Sherwood and six others, Circulation, 1995 | 1,623 patients interviewed about four days after a heart attack, 39 of whom reported anger in the two hours before it | The relative risk of a heart attack in the two hours after an episode of anger was 2.3; 1.4 in regular aspirin users and 2.9 in non-users |
| Mostofsky, Penner and Mittleman, European Heart Journal, 2014 | A systematic review of nine case-crossover studies of heart attack, stroke, ruptured brain aneurysm and ventricular arrhythmia | Every study found a higher rate of cardiovascular events in the two hours after an outburst of anger than at other times |
Proneness Over Years and Outbursts Over Hours
The studies measured a lasting trait in one design and a brief episode in the other.
Williams and his colleagues followed people forward in time, and Chida and Steptoe pooled studies that had done so, each comparing the more angry with the less angry. A hazard ratio above one means the coronary events came at a higher rate in the angrier group, a relative measure across many people.
Mittleman's team and the studies Mostofsky reviewed used the case-crossover design, in which each patient is compared with himself. Anger in the two hours before the heart attack is set against the same patient's expected frequency of anger.
What the Studies Leave Unmeasured
Each study states its own limits.
None of these studies proves that anger causes heart disease in a given person. Chida and Steptoe found indications of publication bias in the reports they pooled, and Mostofsky's review found substantial heterogeneity between its studies. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities analysis found no significant link in people with high blood pressure.
The heart of Proverbs is the inner person, where the studies measured the organ, and the vice that rots the bones in Proverbs 14:30 is envy. No study here measured prayer, forgiveness or faith.
Chest pain, or anger that turns to threats or violence, is a reason to see a doctor or seek help at once, and prayer belongs beside that care.
A Heart at Peace
Scripture gives the remedy the studies cannot measure, a patient spirit learned from the God who is slow to anger.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, the tagged Hebrew Bible (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- Yoichi Chida and Andrew Steptoe, The association of anger and hostility with future coronary heart disease: a meta-analytic review of prospective evidence, Journal of the American College of Cardiology 53, no. 11 (2009): 936 to 946.
- Elizabeth Mostofsky, Elizabeth Anne Penner and Murray A. Mittleman, Outbursts of anger as a trigger of acute cardiovascular events: a systematic review and meta-analysis, European Heart Journal 35, no. 21 (2014): 1404 to 1410.
- Janice E. Williams, Catherine C. Paton, Ilene C. Siegler, Marsha L. Eigenbrodt, F. Javier Nieto and Herman A. Tyroler, Anger proneness predicts coronary heart disease risk: prospective analysis from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, Circulation 101, no. 17 (2000): 2034 to 2039.
- Murray A. Mittleman, Malcolm Maclure, Jane B. Sherwood and others, Triggering of acute myocardial infarction onset by episodes of anger, Circulation 92, no. 7 (1995): 1720 to 1725.
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