BODY WATCH : Don’t Get Mad-- Get Smart : Women shouldn’t suffer silently or explode when they’re angered, new research shows. Rather, they should deal with it-- their health may depend on it.

Doctors have been warning men for years that exploding with anger over trivial events--such as some jerk cutting you off on the San Bernardino--is not good for your health. This classic, Type A behavior tends to land men in the cardiac-care ward.

But what about women?

Is going ballistic bad for their health? Or is it healthier to be a polite lady and keep your anger to yourself?

Neither, say the authors of intriguing new research on women and anger. Repressing anger is just as bad as becoming bleeping mad.

Women, it seems, also have to learn to deal with anger constructively, says Sandra P. Thomas, editor of “Women and Anger,” (Springer Publishing Co., 1993).

“Anger is a problem for women when it is too frequent, too intense, too prolonged,” Thomas says. But, “neither ‘stuffing it’ nor ‘shouting it’ is recommended.”

The key is determining whether your anger is poisonous or constructive.

“Despite its bad press, anger is not entirely unhealthy,” Thomas says. “Anger can be a signal that our rights or values are being compromised, that others are doing too much or too little for us, that something is wrong and should be corrected. Unless the anger is expressed, the offending party has no opportunity to make needed changes in behavior.”

Because of women’s second-class status in society, they have plenty to be angry about, Thomas and her colleagues say. They found anger is a key risk factor in obesity, smoking and substance abuse.

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Until recently, not much has been known about anger and women’s health. Most of the research, such as the Type A studies, were done using male subjects.

Those studies have shown that men with short fuses have a higher risk of heart attack, and cardiologists repeatedly warn men to learn to handle stress without cranking up their blood pressure. But the messages for women have been less clear.

“(Women) are very bewildered about expressing anger,” says Thomas, a nursing professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “There is a message that holding anger in is bad for you. There is an equally vocal message that letting anger out is bad for you. And then there is the suggestion: Just don’t get angry. To me, that’s about as effective as Nancy Reagan saying ‘Just say no’ to drugs.”

There is a societal taboo surrounding women and anger that deterred researchers, Thomas says. Women traditionally hide their anger because it’s contrary to the ideal of the perfect mother and nurturer.

“Our images of angry women are not very attractive,” she says, adding that these images are usually described as “shrews, bitches and nags.”

Thomas’ study--the first large-scale, comprehensive look at women’s anger--showed that how anger is expressed has important implications for women’s health. The all-female research group interviewed 535 women ages 25 to 66 about what makes them angry, how they act when they’re angry and whether there were health consequences linked to their actions.

The study confirmed what several other studies have shown about Type A personalities in men: Hollering, screaming, slamming doors and throwing frying pans are not good for your health.

But harboring anger can be just as dangerous. Thomas found that women who obsessed or ruminated about an incident were more likely to have depression, stress and other physical health problems.

In another study, female heart patients who suppressed anger were found to be more likely to suffer a second heart attack. Researcher Lynda H. Powell of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago also found that employed, divorced women who lacked a college degree had a higher risk for a relapse.

These women, many of whom were married in the 1940s and ‘50s, Powell suggested, might be more prone to heart attacks because of the anger, loneliness and resentment arising from a life that had turned out far differently than they had anticipated. “For women with coronary disease, this combination of (emotions) may be lethal.”

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But women who confront the source of their anger are using the emotion in a healthy way, experts say. For example, one study showed that women who openly expressed anger about having cancer lived longer. And, Thomas says, angry women may get better medical attention than women who are passive.

“Anger can serve as a useful warning signal that stressors are exceeding our resources,” she says. “Anger is an entirely natural, legitimate response in many situations.”

While Thomas found that the healthiest response to anger is to discuss the incident with the person who provoked the anger, only 9% of the women she surveyed said they did that. Instead, many said they coped by crying, taking a walk or exercising and thinking about or analyzing the incident.

Exercise also appears to be a healthy outlet. Thomas found that women who worked out were less likely to have stress-related symptoms, such as a headache or stomachache.

One of the most heartening findings in the study, she notes, was that women rarely blew up over little things. They said they were most likely to get angry over issues of power, justice and responsibility.

“Our women said almost nothing about trivial things, like someone getting ahead of them in traffic--things cited more by men,” Thomas says.

In another study, researchers found that women who were angry about their marriages spent more days ill than their happily married counterparts. The way people manage their anger is rarely considered by doctors as a factor in illness, Thomas notes.

But that should change as more research like the University of Tennessee study emerges.