This is all very well but too many decibels can harm the
hearing

sunday times
Shouting is good for a woman?s health
Sarah-Kate Templeton



WOMEN now have a decent excuse for shouting at their husbands ? it may
be good for their health. A study has found that those who give vent
to their anger live longer than those who bite their tongue.

Researchers tracked the incidence of heart disease in almost 2,000
women of all ages over 10 years and compared it with data on their
marital disputes.



Women who confessed to keeping their feelings to themselves when in
conflict with their husbands ? ?self-silencing? ? faced more than four
times the risk of dying compared with women who spoke out.

?Self-silencing may seem to be protective, because the wife may not
think it acceptable to express her emotions or because she may fear
anger on the part of her husband, but it may have a detrimental
outcome for her health,? said Dr Elaine Eaker.

Eaker, from Wisconsin, oversaw the research to be published this month
in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association. She
added: ?This is probably because, when you bottle something up, rather
than letting it out, it affects your stress hormone levels.?

By contrast, research by the group already published in Circulation
found hot-tempered men who explode with anger seem to be at greater
risk of having a stroke. Men who unleashed their anger were 20% more
likely to develop an irregular heart rhythm.

Men who are contemptuous of others are 30% more likely to develop
irregular heart rhythms, it showed. However, the study did not find a
significant link between hostility and the risk of heart problems in
women.

One lesson from the study is that men and women are different,
emotionally and physically, said Eaker. ?Men have this explosion of
irrational anger that is not good for their health. The message is not
to have angry outbursts but to express your feelings in a constructive
way.?