Anger is not bad for you: study

A small study has found that those who responded to stressful situations with angry facial expressions were less likely to suffer stress-related ill effects such as high &to=http://english.pravda.ru/fun/2002/08/12/34262.html' target=_blank>blood pressure and high stress hormone secretion, compared to people who responded to stress with fearful expressions.

"Anger can sometimes be adaptive. We're showing for the first time that when you are in a situation that is maddening and in which anger or indignation are justifiable responses, anger is not bad for you," study lead author Jennifer Lerner, associate professor of psychology and decision science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said in a prepared statement.

In its study involving 92 people, Lerner's team "tested whether facial muscle movements in response to a stressor would reveal changes in the body's two major stress-response systems -- the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical axis," the researchers said, reoprts Forbes.

Stress leads to biological responses such as an increase in heart rate and a release of hormones. Both can have lasting effects such as diabetes, heart disease, depression and excess weight gain.