Medical expert of the article
New publications
Aggression can trigger a stroke
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Aggressive and stressed people are twice as likely to have a stroke. The results of the study were published in the journal Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Scientists have found that the behavior of people with pronounced aggression, hostility and irascibility can increase the risk of stroke to the same extent as smokers are susceptible to this danger.
Researchers from the University of San Carlos in Madrid analyzed the health of volunteers aged about 54 years.
The study examined the chronic stress levels of 300 healthy people and 150 stroke patients. The researchers assessed the person’s overall well-being, behavior, anxiety, and depression levels. Biological risk factors, including blood cholesterol levels, diabetes, and high blood pressure, were also taken into account.
As a result of the research, experts were able to establish that frequent outbursts of anger and aggression doubled the risk of stroke.
The main risk group included people with the so-called "personality type A", whose behavior was characterized by a desire for superiority, primacy, and the desire to always be the best in everything. Such people perceive life as an arena of competitive struggle. They turned out to be most susceptible to cardiovascular diseases, which is associated with the peculiarities of their behavior. People of this type are clearly stress-prone. It is noted that the greatest number of people with this personality type are concentrated in large economically developed cities, where the opportunity to realize their own ambitions is highest.
Those who have suffered a severe loss and have experienced great stress are also at risk of having a stroke. It is noteworthy that smoking also affects cerebrovascular accidents in the same way. But people, regardless of their unhealthy lifestyle and gender, are at identical risk due to aggressive behavior.
"The basis for further research in the therapeutic direction can be the fight against psychophysical risk factors, the prevention of which will represent the primary prevention of the disease. However, we will be able to get answers to these questions only with further study of the problem," said Dr. José Antonio Egido, a neurologist from the San Carlos Hospital at the University of Madrid.
In order to maintain your health, both physical and emotional, experts advise to put your emotional sphere in order, get rid of negative thoughts, envy, resentment and complexes. Try to look at yourself from the outside and throw off the heavy burden of moral dissatisfaction. Gradually, even the most advanced diseases can retreat and the body will gradually return to a normal rhythm of life.
[