CAD and Forgiveness

Did you know that forgiveness appears to be beneficial to your heart? A study on “The effects of a forgiveness intervention on patients with coronary artery disease” (published in Psychology & Health) assessed the effects of a psychology of forgiveness pilot study on anger-recall stress induced changes in myocardial perfusion, forgiveness, and related variables. Patients assigned to the forgiveness group showed significantly fewer anger-recall induced myocardial perfusion defects from pre-test to the 10-week follow-up as well as significantly greater gains in forgiveness from pre-test to post-test and from pre-test to follow-up compared to the control group. Forgiveness intervention may be an effective means of reducing anger-induced myocardial ischemia in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).