To answer this question, scientists went to the East, where, as you know, it is customary to express one’s feelings in a different way. Therefore, the data obtained by them can be considered the most reliable.
There has been a lot of research on whether anger is bad for health. But most of them involved volunteers from the United States and Western Europe. In these cultures, people under stress don’t care much about restraining themselves. Anywhere they may start screaming or slamming doors. If a person is angry often, he is threatened with health problems.
Recently, a group of Japanese scientists led by Shinobu Kitayma decided to test whether a similar relationship exists in Japan. Eastern culture is very different from Western. Including the social hierarchy: a person of low rank must restrain his emotions in the presence of high-ranking officials.
The researchers were interested in whether these cultural differences could influence the relationship between anger expression and health status. In particular, Japanese adults, who are not shy about showing their annoyance, usually occupy a fairly high position in society. Perhaps they have more opportunities to relieve stress and emotional release?
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To test this hypothesis, Kitayama and colleagues reviewed two large studies, one from the United States and one from Japan. They collected data on the frequency of manifestations of anger, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, signs of inflammation in the blood, and various demographic information.
It turned out that the health status of those who openly demonstrated anger in the US and Japan was very different. Americans often showed signs of inflammatory processes, and their health was generally unimportant. On the contrary, those Japanese who usually did not restrain their irritation were even better in health than others. As a result, psychologists have come to the conclusion that the manifestation of anger in itself does not significantly affect health. Only increased levels of stress are harmful, and the relationship of anger with stress is highly dependent on the culture of the country.
S. Kitayama et al. «Expression of Anger and Ill Health in Two Cultures: An Examination of Inflammation and Cardiovascular Risk». Psychological Science, 2015.