Being sarcastic might be putting your heart at risk, study finds

Sarcasm might leave a sting on those it's directed at, but now new research suggests using sarcasm regularly could actually kill those dishing it out.

The study from the University of Tennessee found that heart attack survivors who displayed hostile personality traits were at an increased risk of suffering from a second heart attack within two years.

Author of the study Dr Tracey Vitori of the University of Tennessee said these traits included being sarcastic, cynical, resentful, impatient or irritable.

"It's not just a one-off occurrence but characterises how a person interacts with people."

In more bad news for cranks, researchers found that those who were outwardly hostile to others were less likely to take care of their health, and were at an increased risk of smoking, drinking and eating a poor diet.

Hostile patients were also found to be at risk for premature death.

"We know that taking control of lifestyle habits improves the outlook for heart attack patients and our study suggests that improving hostile behaviours could also be a positive move," Dr Vitori said.

More than 2300 survivors were analysed over the course of two years, allowing researchers time to find a link between personality traits and heart health.

They measured hostility among survivors with a personality test.

"Hostile individuals have increased clotting times, higher adrenaline levels, above normal cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and increased cardiac reactivity," researchers wrote in the findings.

"These known inflammatory factors may initiate cardiac events and increase poor clinical outcomes."

The findings were published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing.