Anger, stress, dysregulation produces wear and tear on the lung

The relationship between psychological and physical states has been known to medicine since the time of the ancient Greeks.¹ Although at one time patients with diseases of unknown origin (such as tuberculosis in the 19th century) were labelled as suffering from a psychological or moral malady, this error (and often injustice) does not negate truths about the mind/body relationship in disease. Indeed, scientific interest in and speculation even about mind/body effects on tuberculosis remains high.²

In this issue of Thorax, Kubzansky et al³ have published an important paper on the relationship between decline in lung function in older men and the emotional characteristic of anger. This coincides with a considerable literature on the relationship between anger and cardiovascular disease.⁴ As the “fight” component in the fight-flight reflex, the psychophysiology of anger overlaps with that of stress. Stress related factors are known to depress immune function⁵ and increase susceptibility to or exacerbate a host of diseases and disorders including asthma,⁶ hypertension,⁷ upper respiratory infection,⁸ various skin diseases,⁹ chronic fatigue syndrome,¹⁰ irritable bowel syndrome,¹¹ vasovagal syncope¹² …