Do you live in an angry city? You might be surprised to find you do
I’m pissed! I am REALLY pissed!
Sorry, but I can’t help it because I live in Baltimore, the second-angriest city in the U.S.
Grrrrr!
Men’s Health Magazine recently rated the 100 angriest cities in the U.S. by tallying and comparing four statistics:
1) Number of aggravated assaults per capita
2) Number of cases of high blood pressure
3) Amount of time spent in rush hour traffic
4) Number of anger-management specialists per capita
As you might guess, plenty of large urban areas like Baltimore appear on the list, many of them toward the top, naturally. But a close look reveals some surprises…
For instance, Charleston, WV (with a population of only about 300,000), places in the top 10. And St. Petersburg, FL, actually comes in THIRD!
St. Petersburg–who could have guessed how angry you are?
Even more surprising, those two smaller cities–along with Louisville, KY, and Oklahoma City–all place higher on the list than traffic-clogged Los Angeles.
Billings, MT–not a place I’d associate with anger–makes the list and actually places in the top 50. But again, even more surprising is that Billings joins Aurora, CO, and Manchester, NH, as angrier cities than New York City.
Apparently there are some very irritated people out there! And whether anger occurs in an individual or a city, if it’s prolonged it can be hazardous to health.
Anger releases stress hormones, so chronic anger imbalances hormone levels and impairs the immune system. Anger also releases chemicals that coagulate the blood, increasing blood clot risk. Tensed head and neck muscles can prompt headaches and insomnia. And anger can even cause the stomach to hyper-produce acids.
So…try to chill out there, Billings. Times are tense, but keep in mind that no one will probably ever film a TV show in your town called “Homicide: Life on the Streets.”
