Warning: Get a grip on your anger before it ruins your heart!

If you have Chris Brown like outbursts, listen up: Long-term anger – even moderate anger – can be unhealthy for your heart!

That’s right! Being angry all the time doesn’t just ruin your relationships, it makes you more likely to have a heart attack or stroke!

Revealed: Anger’s negative effects on your heart

While scientists aren’t sure exactly how this works, “emotions such as anger and hostility quickly activate the ‘fight or flight response,’ in which stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, speed up your heart rate and breathing and give you a burst of energy. Blood pressure also rises as your blood vessels constrict,” says webMD.

This can cause unnecessary wear-and-tear on your heart and can speed up the process in which fatty plaques build up your arteries.

Scary, right?

And it’s a good reason to take the time to learn techniques that can make you slower to explode.

Manage your anger better to protect your heart

One such technique is deep breathing and relaxing imagery. This can help calm you down and diffuse anger, explains yahoo.com.

The article also advises you to participate in cognitive restructuring. “Cognitive restructuring is just a fancy way of saying: Change the way you think. People who tend to become angry also tend to speak in ‘colourful’ language such as cursing or swearing that are a reflection of their inner thought patterns. If your thinking is overly dramatic, negative and angry your actions will be too. Replace irrational, emotional thoughts with more rational ones.”

If you suffer from sudden, anger outburst heed this warning! Get yours under control or it could take your life.