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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. Gary Oliver 
 
 
Question: 
 
What are the physical affects of anger? 
 
Answer:  
 
Anger is one of the most fascinating of all the emotions, because of all 
the emotions, anger is the emotion that we tend to have the greatest 
physical experience of. I can feel depressed and feel down. When I 
worry I’m sometimes aware of some tension. When we have grief 
we’re aware of a lack of energy, but when you experience anger, 
you’re going to experience some amazing things all over your body. 
 
In fact, I want to show you a graphic here, and here’s what happens, 
here’s what our body does when we experience the emotion of anger: 
Our hypothalamus gland becomes activated. Our pupils become 
dilated. Our pituitary gland becomes activated. Our sugar increases. 
Our blood pressure increases. The blood clots faster when we’re 
experiencing the emotion of anger. The heart rate increases. There’s a 
flow of adrenalin, in fact when we experience anger adrenalin and 
noradrenalin is pumped into our central nervous system and our body 
goes on alert. 
 
Our lungs also move oxygen faster, so you may be more aware of a 
rapid breathing or a heavy breathing. The adrenalin flows and 
digestion and elimination come to a halt. So, when someone says that 
an angry person is “uptight,” physiologically they are uptight.  
 
Now, when we experience anger, especially if we allow it to go from 
mild to moderate to severe—of course anger works on a continuum, 
there are different levels of anger—but the more we allow that 
 
 
emotion of anger to control us, the more powerful effect it is going to 
have. And this is what is important to keep in mind: While anger can 
be a positive emotion, while it can be healthy—and there has been 
tremendous good done when the energy of anger has been channeled 
in healthy ways—unhealthy anger can kill. 
 
The number one cause of death of adult men is coronary heart 
disease, and the number one cause of coronary heart disease, based 
on medical studies, is unhealthy anger. Anger turned inward, or anger 
that becomes explosive. So, when you look at strokes and migraine 
headaches and colitis and goiter and even cancer, there are myriad 
physical problems that have been traced back to unhealthy anger.  
 
Over the years I’ve had numerous internal medicine physicians refer 
patients to me. And they’ve called me and said, “Gary, here’s the deal: 
I’m giving this patient some medication, but it’s not for a medically-
caused problem. They’ve got some medical symptoms, but it’s not 
about a medical problem. It’s an emotional problem.” Time and time 
again it was about the emotion of anger. 
 
So, it is really important for you, for your health, for your 
relationships, to understand this unique emotion of anger. Anger can 
be unhealthy or it can be healthy. You can allow your anger to control 
you, or you can learn to control your anger. And the good news is, no 
matter what your anger pattern is—I came from a family, several 
generations back of Oliver males who haven’t done anger very well.  
 
My grandfather served time in a penitentiary because he didn’t do 
anger very well. He allowed his anger to control him. My dad struggled 
with allowing his anger to control him. And I’ve had to learn how to 
understand this emotion.  
 
But I want to tell you—no matter how great a problem it might be for 
you or for someone you love. Trust me. You can learn how to make 
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this powerful emotion work for you rather than against you. If you just 
take the time to understand it and then learn how to utilize the 
strength. 
 
 
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