Grumpy old men run out of puff earlier

In the normal course of aging, lung power will decline for most people, but now researchers say that anger and hostility can accelerate that process.

A team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, say that hostility and anger has a negative effect on lung power.

In a study of 670 male military veterans, ranging in age from 45 to 86, the scientists used a scoring system to measures the levels of anger of each of the men through a series of questionnaires, and they tested their lung power three times over an eight-year period.

They found that males who had higher levels of long-standing anger at the start of the project, had significantly poorer lung function at the end of it and this remained the case even after other factors such as smoking were taken into account.

Feelings of anger, hostility and stress have also been associated with heart disease, asthma and other ailments and the researchers suggest that the negative emotions may disturb the immune system and cause chronic inflammation.

Experts believe that factors which are stress-related might depress the immune function and increase the susceptibility to, or exacerbate, a range of diseases and disorders.

Other studies had shown that a rapid decline in lung function was linked to increased susceptibility to debilitating lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease and increased mortality.

Though it is unknown to what extent chronic anger contributes to physical deterioration the researchers say they have established a link between chronic anger and age-related deterioration in lung function.

The research is published in the journal Thorax.