by Lawrence Wilson, MD
© August 2008, The Center For Development
Anger is the most common emotional disorder of human beings. It is a natural response of the body to danger, attack or even just fear. It can serve as a motivator to move one out of a bad situation. However, it often causes more problems than its solves. Let us begin by understanding exactly what the angry response is.
Anger is a response and an effort of the adrenal glands and even more so the thyroid gland to overcome a stressful situation. This is called the fight-or-flight reaction. The emotion associated with this is called anger.
This emergency response is mediated through the sympathetic nervous system, which is also called the fight-or-flight nervous system. It shunts blood away from most of the organs and tissues and sends it to the muscles and the brain. The purpose is mainly to prepare the body for a fight or to flee.
There are many other changes in the body as well. For instance, the heart rate increases, blood pressure rises and the muscles become more tense.
If anger is normal, why is it a problem? First, it is upsetting and can damage or even ruin situations and relationships. Also, especially if it continues, it tends to cause physical and emotional damage.
It tends to drain the body of energy . Also, hormones secreted by the adrenal glands including cortisol, cortisone, epinephrine and nor-epinephrine begin to damage the body. Medical science is well aware that anger raises blood pressure and can even cause heart attacks, cancer and other serious illnesses.
Nutrition can be extremely helpful for all phases of anger. Here are the ways nutritional balancing can help:
1) Reducing biochemical triggers for anger. This can easily prevent many anger reactions in many people.
2) Reducing the intensity of anger reactions if they still occur.
3) Reducing biochemical reasons why anger reactions linger after the cause goes away.
4) Reducing damage to the glands and nervous system caused by prolonged anger and rebuilding the nervous and glandular response systems that have been impacted by lingering anger responses.
5) Improving the recognition of situations, clarity of thinking and ability to reason through situations instead of reacting. This can help with all phases of anger and its outcomes.
6) Helping one adopt a more spiritual or calm attitude about others, about the world and about oneself so that one learns new responses to difficult conditions. This is the ultimate way to deal with anger.
7) Preventing unhealthy suppression of anger reactions caused by nutritional imbalances that result in brain fog, confusion and other inappropriate responses to stress.
Let us examine each of these aspects of nutrition and anger.
Many stimuli can trigger an angry reaction. More than you might imagine, however, these come from the inside of the body. Here are common ones that are revealed on a hair mineral analysis:
1. Toxic metals. These include lead, cadmium, copper, iron, manganese and others. Having too much of these in the body is like having a nervous finger on the trigger of a gun.
In some cases, the trait has been given names, such as Òmanganese madnessÓ, a condition found in those who mine and handle a lot of manganese. There is a reason people who are angry are sometimes called Òiron-fistedÓ.
Iron, for example, settles in an area of the brain called the amigdala, which is associated with feelings of rage and anger. As the metal is removed from the body, people often get in touch with how angry they are and calm down. This is simply our observation.
All the toxic metals are neurotoxic. Most increase the brainÕs inappropriate responses to stress. For example, hair samples from a number of serial killers has shown their lead, cadmium and manganese levels are higher than normal. (Toxic Metal Syndrome, Casdorph and Walker, p. 207).
2. Nutrient deficiencies are often associated with anger, believe it or not. Among the most important elements to reduce inappropriate anger and avoid triggering the anger response are the Òsedative mineralsÓ. These are calcium, magnesium and zinc.
They are actually psychological buffer elements that reduce a personÕs responses to stress. Too much is not good, but in the right amount they keep a person balanced and healthy.
Other important nutrients that contribute to appropriate emotional responses include selenium, chromium, available manganese and others. These are also needed to manage stress and stressful situations.
3. Unbalanced ratios of minerals can also contribute to anger reactions. These include a high or low ratio of calcium to magnesium.
For example, a ratio of calcium to magnesium in the hair that is above about 8:1 may be associated with defensiveness. This is a method whereby people use their angry reactions to protect themselves from stress of all kinds. It is a learned response, usually, that is extremely hard to live with for other people because it tends to block loving responses.
A very low calcium/magnesium ratio can indicate a type of devensiveness of a different kind. These people do not like stress and may go along, but secretly resent their lives and other people. This is also found if the sodium/potassium ratio in a hair sample that is unwashed by the laboratory is less than about 2:1.
Each of the patterns above affects the body in different ways. They require different corrective diet and nutritional supplements. In my experience, such information cannot be gleaned from blood or saliva tests.
2. REDUCING THE INTENSITY OF ANY IMPROPER ANGER RESPONSE
The same factors mentioned above can also reduce all inappropriate angry responses.
While this is complex, having excess toxic metals in the body can prolong the anger response. This occurs because the recovery from anger depends in part on the bodyÕs ability to replenish certain nutrients in neurotransmitters and elsewhere in the glands and nervous system.
If vital nutrients are missing or if toxic metals are blocking the enzyme binding sites where the nutrients are supposed to be involved, then the recovery will not occur nearly as well.
Many people report that they are generally less emotional when, for example, their copper is reduced and their cadmium is reduced in their bodies.
Copper is called Ôthe emotional mineralÕ for this reason. Reducing its high level in the body and increasing the bodyÕs ability to properly handle copper is often a key to reducing anger as well as reducing what we might call the recovery time after an angry response to stress.
4. REDUCING ANGER-CAUSED DAMAGE TO THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND GLANDS, AND REBUILDING BOTH OF THEM
This is a critical benefit of nutritional balancing. In most adults and even many children, prolonged or too much anger has caused damage to the adrenal glands.
The result is often fatigue, low blood sugar and more. Sometimes these cause depression, anxiety and other problems. This can also lead to a vicious cycle in which one just becomes more angry, especially when most doctors cannot find the reason for the symptoms. They may contribute to the anger with their expensive tests, drugs, chelating agents and other methods that may not help much.
At least 100 or more nutrients are needed every day. We must obtain these from food and with the use of supplements. However, rebuilding the glandular and nervous system with nutrients usually takes a few years and must be done properly to work well.
5. IMPROVING MENTAL CLARITY, COGNATIVE ABILITY, MEMORY AND REASONING
Removing hundreds of toxic chemicals from the brain and nervous system and reducing the burden of toxic metals will restore brain function, often to an amazing degree.
One female patient, age 12,
consulted me for infections. As
she became well nutritionally, her mother happened to mention that her grades
went from Ds to As.
This
is not uncommon as nutrition is improved and toxic substances reduced in the
body. Also critical is to balance
the mineral ratios gently with nutritional products and an improved diet and
lifestyle rather than with ADD drugs.
The drugs can control behavior, which is excellent, but they seem to do
little for actual school performance in clinical trials.
6. HELPING A PERSON DEVELOP MORE SPIRITUAL ATTITUDES AND RESPONSES TO STRESS OF ALL TYPES
This may sound like an outrageous claim for a nutrition and lifestyle-based healing program. However, zinc is crucial for the activity of the cortex or so-called Ònew brainÓ in human beings and animals.
This part of the brain gives us the ability to have what are called the Òhigher emotionsÓ such as compassion, empathy and others. More than this, even, as a person becomes more in control of his or her emotions, he can then go on to learn better ways to respond to stress. This is the beginning of what we call spiritual development.
In particular, zinc and selenium we consider the Òspiritual mineralsÓ because they have such a profound influence on certain brain areas that control the higher emotions, higher thought faculties and other areas of the brain that are associated with what might be called spiritual attitudes such as forgiveness and letting go of grudges.
The benefits may seem vague and intangible, but they are real. Many people report back that they have a better attitude about life, in general. What is occurring is that parts of their brain that were less active are becoming more active. As this occurs, they think differently and can adopt better attitudes.
To keep this article short, a discussion of the spiritual and psychological benefits of nutritional balancing is contained in separate articles on this website such as Spiritual Development and others.
7. PREVENTING SUPPRESSION OF ANGER
Many hair mineral analyses indicate maladaptive or inappropriate responses to anger. These patterns include defensiveness patterns such as a high calcium/magnesium ratio. This is not a healthful way to live
Another is a resentment/hostility/frustration pattern indicated by a low Na/K ratio. This occurs when anger becomes lingering and chronic. This one is always associated with lowered energy and vitality and chronic illness if it continues too long.
Another is indicated by a tissue calcium level greater than 175 mg% or so. This pattern is called a Òcalcium shellÓ. It often indicates suppressed anger and depression. Depression can occur if one turns oneÕs anger inward against the self. This is also very damaging and could even lead to suicide.
By correcting these imbalances, plus the imbalances discussed above, a person will be far more able to respond to situations without suppressing anger or misinterpreting angry responses as being wrong or sad or somehow their own fault when they are not truly so. So many people have pre-conditioned responses to anger that are not correct. Nutritional balancing, though it may be hard to imagine, can help correct some of these emotional imbalances as well.
OTHER
NUTRITIONAL APPROACHES NOT AS COMPLETE AS NUTRITIONAL BALANCING, BUT OFTEN
SOMEWHAT HELPFUL
Holistic
doctors are beginning to understand the above. Some are beginning to test the adrenals, the thyroid gland
and other types of tests to figure out the causes of anger responses.
This
is a good start. However, in our
experience, the hair mineral analysis, which really measures the response to
stress, is far more accurate and insightful. Here are comments on some of the more popular tests and
approaches.
Natural or artifical hormone replacement. This is becoming very popular in some circles. It can help with some depression and other emotional issues. However, it never can rebuild the body, so we prefer not to use it. It is rapid, however, which attracts many doctors to this method.
Medication. Drugs for anger, rage and other emotional problems such as tranquilizers are common. Today it is hard to believe that one of every five American school children is taking some drug for inappropriate behavior or learning disorders.
This, too, can produce a rapid response. However, the drugs are all toxic to a degree. Side effects can include suicide among children, in particular, and even homicide.
Many school shootings are by people taking anti-depressants, Ritalin and others. This is explained in more detail in other articles on this website such as Why Do Kids Kill?
In our view, these drugs are rarely needed if the body can be brought into balance nutritionally. Sometimes this can be done in a few days. In other cases, it can take a year or more. Thus the drugs have a place in extreme situations, but that is usually all.
This article would not be complete without mentioning several other factors that are critical to help reduce inappropriate anger. The most important of these is getting enough rest and sleep.
Rest and sleep. Insufficient rest, all by itself, will trigger an angry response in many cases. Think about this carefully! We have all become irritable and angry due to lack of adequate rest. Most everyone knows this, but few talk about it. Most people, especially teens and busy parents, do not get nearly enough sleep.
Anger as a way to handle fatigue and depression. This is an important and interesting cause for anger today among many millions of people.
If the adrenal glands and thyroid gland are exhausted due to lack of rest or nutritional depletion from any cause, some people will use anger as their motivation to get out of bed in the morning and to keep them going throughout the day.
This may sound strange, but it is very common. It is a false motivation, however, that leads to horrible consequences such as divorce and even violence. Beware if you are using your anger to motivate yourself to get up, interact with others and otherwise to cope.
Exercise. Some exercise is helpful for anger. It releases some of the hormones and can release some emotions as well. However, it, too, is often used in extreme ways to cope with anger. This is not healthful and can cause heart attacks and more problems.
Millions today, in America and elsewhere in the developed nations, are addicted to exercise to some degree. It assists them to cope with their fatigue or their anger. This is not a good way to use exercise or anything, for that matter. Exercise, in moderation, however, may be helpful to deal with a difficult situation.
Letting go is a complex process. It is discussed in more detail in an article on this website entitled Letting Go. However, the most powerful method I know to force one to let go is a particular meditation exercise. I will call it the Roy Masters type of meditation, after the man who taught it to me.
What his meditation does is to relax the body, heal the body and help one to recognize that we donÕt have the answers so we have to turn to another force, another power, in order to forgive and forget. This, in a nutshell, is the meaning and reason for meditation of the proper type.
Different from other meditations, prayer, affirmations and more. This is different from prayers, which are asking for forgiveness, for example. It is different from affirmations or decrees that I forgive and I am forgiven.
This is different from asking God for mercy, even. Mercy means you have done something wrong and hope the punishment wonÕt be too bad.
Meditation is a submitting of your will to a higher power and knowing that submitting will bring resolution of your anger problem because as the truth is seen and understood all is known to God and all will be handled appropriately.
We donÕt have all of the facts, but some higher power does, perhaps, and will take care of our situation. This relieves us of dealing with it and this alone will cure the anger. It is about turning it over to some power or being that can handle it better than a puny human being can.
This may sound demeaning but it is not. It is just the truth. The world is larger than ourselves and there is no way we understand all angles of a problem such as anger. Thus we turn it over and do our best to forgive and ask for help in this as well.
How this meditation helps. The Roy Masters meditation helps in many ways. Among them are:
1. It will bring up your own anger issues so that they will not remain as a subconscious trigger mechanism for angry responses that are not correct responses.
2. It will calm the mind so that you can see all situations more clearly.
3. It sets up an objective observer consciousness inside you so that you will be better able to discern all situations to find the truth about them.
4. It relaxes the sympathetic nervous system and, indeed, the entire body and mind to help you handle all stressful situations better.
5. It can greatly reduce the duration of your anger if you meditate after a stress-producing situation.
6. It can help you to become a happier person so that slights and insults and attacks by others do not upset your balance and your peace nearly as much, no matter what occurs.
7. It can help you develop emotional detachment and a forgiving and loving attitude of Òthy will be doneÓ. As you do this at a deeper and deeper level, you will be able to accept more in your life, become more flexible in your attitudes and responses and be better able to forgive and forget, which is the ultimate answer to holding anger and grudges against others.
For all of these reasons, we
strongly recommend that anyone who is dealing with anger issues, which is most
people, do this meditation every day for at least an hour or two. One cannot overdo on the meditation.
After
a little while, it will begin to bring up issues for review that may be painful
and cause symptoms in the body. In
this case, just rest a while and continue. This is evidence of healing and not a problem at all.
Depression is the most common emotionally-related complaint in doctorÕs offices today. However, anger is often the underlying cause. Anger turned inward becomes depression. For more on this, read the article on this website entitled Depression.
While all the above is important, sometimes one needs hints about how to handle anger in oneÕs life. The following are a few simple ways that can help. All of them can work if they derail or decrease the angry response of the sympathetic nervous system.
1. Tell others calmly when you are angry instead of just acting out. This can be done quite easily if one can calm down enough to do it right. All that is needed is to tell the other person or company or government or whomever that you are feeling very angry about your situation. That is really all that is needed.
It is surprising, but this is rarely what people do. Instead, they act out. They fume or curse or otherwise react negatively instead of acting in a positive way.
This, in turn, usually makes others angry and worsens the problem. The anger escalates until violence occurs or people become sad, depressed and anxious about themselves and even their sanity.
2. Wait at least a few minutes, breathe or leave the room for a while before responding to any attack or insult. You might even take a day or a week or even a year to analyze why you are angry and formulate your response that is not going to escalate the problem, but just express it properly.
3. Others. Another technique is to hold the breath until you cannot do so. This is actually another way to kick the sympathetic system out of its automatic mode of operation so you are back in control.
Another method is to speak quietly at all times. Be sure not to suppress your anger. But just control your tongue and your voice.
Affirmations that may be helpful are ÒI am in the right place at the right timeÓ and ÒAll events are neutralÓ. These are actually spiritual truths, not just words. If you can understand them and practice them, they will help somewhat.
One final method is to speak good things about the person or situation you are angry with. This is actually an excellent method in spiritual terms. It places you in the unlikely situation of praising one you wish to hurt. So, once again, it stops the automatic sympathetic nervous system response and this is extremely helpful, at least in the short term.
Note, however, that these are no substitute for nutritional balancing or other nutritional methods that go much deeper.
Anger has a spiritual component that is often at the core of the problem. Let us discuss the basics of this issue.
Anger is always fear that is projected. For more on this topic see the book and/or CD that I made called The Real Self. It is also discussed in an article on this website entitled The Real Self. These deal with this topic in much more detail. However, suffice it to say that anger is always a projection, in psychological terms.
This means that a person who is angry is blaming someone or something else for their problem. Now, in fairness, if you are being attacked, it is fair to blame it on the other person, at least from a superficial point of view.
However, spiritually speaking, we are never attacked. We are actually the cause of our entire life. This will be hard to believe for someone who was hit by a drunk driver or raped. However, it is nevertheless a spiritual principle with some truth to it.
The spiritual response to incomprehensible situations. The answer is not revenge, self-doubt, fear, depression or vindication. It is a quiet acceptance based on knowing that God or a higher power is basically in charge. This does not mean just laying down and dying, by the way. It could mean taking violent action, in fact. However, it is not an angry response.
This is very hard for most people to do without some kind of training, such as martial arts training, meditation of others such as certain kinds of military training. However, it can be done and is often life-saving.
An excellent example of this response was the famous one by Jesus. As he was being murdered, he uttered, ÒForgive them, Father, for they know now what they do.Ó His mind was on God, not on his pain and frustration and hating his enemies.
Of course, this is not an easy response, and it must come from the heart, not just mouthing words.
It was a wise response by one who knew there was a miracle in progress and to just relax and allow the truth to come to light. So the answer is not so much in the words, but the feeling behind them.
Another interesting story for those dealing with anger is to read the Book of Job in the old testament. It is thoughtfully written and contains many spiritual truths. Job did not handle things perfectly, but eventually he learned how to deal with his anger and his fortunes changed. This brings us to the subject of forgiveness and forgetting.
The spiritual answer to anger is always forgiveness. There is no substitute for it. To forgive means to forget and move on in your life. There is really little else to do.
Holding on to your anger causes frustration, resentment, hostility and worse. So the only answer is to forgive. But how can this be done in a genuine way, especially after, say, a loved one has been murdered or something else terrible has appeared to transpire in your life?
The answer is, there is no human way. That is, one must turn the problem over to the holy spirit, the high self or God, the angels or whatever form of help that you conceive of that is not of this physical world. That is the true answer.
For example, in the above statement by Jesus, he did not say ÒI forgive youÓ. He said ÒFather, forgive themÓ. This is an important distinction because many spiritual teachers and psychology books advise one to forgive your enemies. The fact is that many times you cannot do this.
In fact, one might say you do not have the power to do this. It is too big a task if something terrible happens. It must come from a higher source.
All you can do is ask that it be done and it will be, eventually. This will often help keep your anger in check because you are dealing with the situation in a positive way.
Forgive yourself, too. Another
spiritual technique that may help is to forgive yourself. If you can do this, it will be far
easier to forgive anyone else.
You
must forgive yourself for your
misperceptions of your situation.
This may sound odd. After
all, what have you done that requires forgiveness?
The answer is that all situations are, in fact, neutral , from this perspective. So if you have attached value to the situation, you are in error and need forgiveness. You have misperceived the importance of the body, the car or whatever has been attacked or damaged. In fact, God and spirit are all that are real, in this viewpoint.
As we said, this is advanced, but if you are so inclined, it will help a lot. It involves changing your perception of the situation, which is usually very healing.
Forgiving yourself is also helpful in another way. Often people blame themselves for accidents, for example. We often say things like Òif only I had taken the bus that day instead of walking to workÓ, or Òif only I had listened to my Dad and not gone out with that manÓ, or something like this.
Here forgiveness of the self is essential in order youÕre your anger not be turned inward against the self. This only causes depression and sadness and does nothing to resolve the actual anger. It usually just comes out in a different form that is often even more harmful to yourself.
Another way to deal with stress that is spiritual in nature is to cultivate true patience. Throughout the ages, patience has been viewed as a great virtue.
Before discussing this, I want to differentiate true patience from a false type of patience that is common today. By true patience, I mean an understanding of the situation from a detached perspective so you can see the long-term consequences of your anger and of the attack or issue that caused your anger.
False patience, by contrast, is just biding your time to get revenge. This is the ÒpatienceÓ discussed in TV and movies that is not really patient. It is just waiting for an opportunity to strike back. One holds onto anger with the latter, but not with the former.
Patience is a great virtue. One saying is that ÒIn patience possess ye your soulsÓ. Others have stated this differently saying things like patience is having time on your side. Impatience is having time working against you.
Patience is a virtue that must be learned, however. Patience is not inborn in most people. Patience implies a long-term view of the world and events. Patience is therefore the ultimate answer to anger in one sense.
If one has enough patience, one knows that all wrongs will be righted and all harmful people will someday be brought to justice. Therefore one need not be angry and vengeful, even if justice will be done long after oneÕs own death.
In practice, however, patience is also helpful to assuage anger because it helps a person have a broader view of the situation. For example, if one is run over by a drunk driver, patience involves preparing for a legal case instead of just lashing out at the driver.
Patience might also involve realizing that alcoholism must be overcome in our society or we will never get over the deaths and suffering due to this problem.
Patience might also teach that the person is not wholly responsible because a parent was also alcoholic and the child was part of the family problem.
Patience might well teach many other lessons, such as the fact that those who commit crimes can suffer, too. In this way, patience is a great teacher. However, patience is not the same as forgiveness, which is a letting go of anger altogether.
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