If you are the kind of person who constantly blows a fuse, chances are that you are at risk of  getting a stroke or heart attack. A latest study shows that hot-tempered people have increased risk of cardiac problems.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, found that hot-tempered folks have more chances of  suffering from cardiovascular-related issues two hours following the anger outbursts compared to those who remain calm.

"The relative risk was similar for people who had known pre-existing heart disease and those who didn't," said Dr Murray A. Mittleman, senior study author and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, reports CNN. "A person with pre-existing heart disease or cardiovascular disease, the absolute risk they are incurring is much greater than (that of) a person without cardiovascular disease or risk factors."

The study showed that within two hours of an anger outburst, the risk of a heart attack jumped by nearly five-fold and risk of stroke shot up over three times.

"This is particularly important for people who have higher risk due to other underlying risk factors, or those who have already had a heart attack, stroke or diabetes," researcher Elizabeth Mostofsky said in a statement.

The study results showed that the risk of heart attack in people with low cardio vascular risk was found to be one in 10,000 for anger outbursts, reports BBC.

The researchers found that the risk of heart problems increased even more in people with a  heart history. The authors furthermore stated that the findings do not necessarily imply that anger leads to only heart problems. It was one of the problems linked to it, reports the Daily Mail.

Dr Mostofsky said all previous studies found that compared to other times, there was a higher rate of cardiovascular events in the two hours following outbursts of anger.

 "Anger causes our heart rate to increase through the sympathetic nervous system and causes our stress hormones to become elevated (the fight or flight mechanism)," Dr. Mariell Jessup, president of the American Heart Association and medical director of the Penn Heart and Vascular Center at the University of Pennsylvania, reports CNN. "We breathe faster, all of which may trigger undesirable reactions in our blood pressure or in our arteries."