To heal from wounds and injuries the body has to rally its resources. The immune system gears up for the challenge…then stalls. Instead of healing the bruises, bumps and burns it sputters out, and the healing slows down.

What makes some people heal faster than others? There are a number of factors of course. In exploring the body-mind connection in wound healing, researchers observed that subjects who held on to an angry, irritated state of mind took longer to heal. Interesting right? Keeping cool and calm facilitates healing.

Here is the research…

The influence of anger expression on wound healing.

Gouin JP, Kiecolt-Glaser JK, Malarkey WB, Glaser R.

Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, USA; Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, Ohio State University College of Medicine, USA.

Certain patterns of anger expression have been associated with maladaptive alterations in cortisol secretion, immune functioning, and surgical recovery. We hypothesized that outward and inward anger expression and lack of anger control would be associated with delayed wound healing. A sample of 98 community-dwelling participants received standardized blister wounds on their non-dominant forearm. After blistering, the wounds were monitored daily for 8 days to assess speed of repair. Logistic regression was used to distinguish fast and slow healers based on their anger expression pattern. Individuals exhibiting lower levels of anger control were more likely to be categorized as slow healers. The anger control variable predicted wound repair over and above differences in hostility, negative affectivity, social support, and health behaviors. Furthermore, participants with lower levels of anger control exhibited higher cortisol reactivity during the blistering procedure. This enhanced cortisol secretion was in turn related to longer time to heal.These findings suggest that the ability to regulate the expression of one’s anger has a clinically relevant impact on wound healing.