Science / Medicine : Study Ties Cholesterol to Anger

Hostile teen-agers are likely to grow up to be adults who have high cholesterol, according to a study that finds new links between anger and heart trouble. For years, many experts assumed that hard-driving, impatient people with classic Type A personalities were at high risk of heart attacks. But many of the researchers have grown skeptical of this theory, and some now believe that the truly lethal personality trait is hostility and anger.

“People with high hostility at age 19 tend to have high cholesterol levels at 40,” Dr. Redford B. Williams of Duke University said last week at a Dallas meeting of the American Heart Assn.

Williams’ study was among several presented at the association’s annual meeting to suggest that hostile people are more prone to heart trouble--both because of the effects of adrenaline and other hormones on their bodies and their tendency to have unhealthful living habits.