(Jamie Ducharme/ Time) — Though emotions are often fleeting, they can have a lasting impact on your health. Stress, for example, may heighten the risk of both chronic and acute health conditions, while happiness can improve wellbeing.
Now, a small new study published in the journal Psychology and Aging suggests that anger, far more than sadness, is linked to negative health effects in older people, potentially by contributing to inflammation and chronic disease.
The new research was borne from a theory developed by two of the study’s co-authors, psychologists Carsten Wrosch and Ute Kunzmann. The theory posits that all emotions — even negative ones — play an important, evolving role throughout a person’s life.
“All negative emotions may have a positive function if experienced in the right context,” says Wrosch, a psychology professor at Concordia University in Canada. Anger may motivate people to push through tough circumstances, for example, while sadness can kickstart the healing process after trauma. (…)