The heart beating fast is exercising it, so let’s compare it to normal exercise.

Say you have an overweight gentleman who never excercise and you force him to fun a couple miles by, say, having an angry bear chase him. Or insert whatever thing that will force him to fun. He will be barely able to breath, might just drop to the ground unable to move, and if he does make it the whole way will be so stiff and sore that he might not be able to move properly for days.

Anger/anxiety is like that. You are exercising a system and pushing it far past is it used to withstanding.. Things are going to start to break down.

Now take the same person and have him start running every day. He’s still running right? But he can gradually ramp up, get stronger, and soon he can run the same distance with ease and no ill effects.

Raising the heart during exercsie is excercsising the heart as well as the body, training it and making it stronger. It’s not the same as just suddenly pushing it way beyond what it’s used to all at once.

Okay but please, I have to know what this disagreement is about?!

Doesn’t it have more to do with cortisol being released during anxiety/stress, and not necessarily the blood pulse? High Cortisol levels will do a number on your psyche.

Lot of misleading information here – the truth is there really ain’t a good way to make this ELI5 – but I’ll try my best. (Credentials – I put people to sleep for a living).

From a functional standpoint elevated heart rate is no different on the heart wether it’s from stress or exercise when it comes to rate.

Elevated heart rate is dangerous with an already diseased heart for two reasons. First, pumping fast requires more oxygen and if you have a problem delivering oxygenated blood at baseline (coronary artery disease), increasing the requirement of oxygen will make the muscle ischemic (injures due to lack of oxygen). Second, the heart is perfused (blood flows into the muscle) during the resting period of the cardiac cycle (diastole). The faster your heart beats, the less resting and the less blood that flows to the muscle.

The body releases a chemical when stressed (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that both increase heart rate (stimulate beta-1) and increase blood pressure (stimulate alpha-1). Making your heart use even more oxygen as it has to push against a higher pressure.

This happens with exercise and stress – so it can be dangerous to exercise with already very high blood pressure. There is nothing magical about stress on the heart when it comes to exercise vs stress.

Long term exercise leads to demand changes in the heart that make it better able to deal with the increased oxygen demand of expected continuous exercise. Stress also releases a host of other inflammatory hormones that are contributory you high BP and heart disease.

The main idea here is overtime the cause of the stress matters but in a Single session there is little difference.

I know this isn’t what you were asking, but op, I’d strongly suggest looking up some CBT strategies. I have anxiety, wich sometimes manifests as a roaring anger, and I’ve found some really good self help resources online that can help with stuff like that. meditation tools work really well to, to bring you back into the moment and out of negetive thought cycles.

Think of your blood vessels as the plumbing for a house. Exercising requires blood to flow to different muscles, much like opening up multiple water valves in a house to turn on the sprinklers, wash clothes, run the dishwasher, and take a shower at the same time. More water gets pumped from your water main (heart) to do all those things.

When you’re stressed or angry, without doing anything, the blood pressure has no where to go. It’s like having more water pressure in your plumbing pipes without any exits. Over time, this can damage the pipes and lead to bigger issues. Chronic high blood pressure can injure your blood vessels.

This is why exercise is a good thing to do when you feel stressed or angry as an outlet for your increased heart rate and blood pressure.

One good example I’ve heard, is that when you encounter something fearsome, you’ll get a shot of adrenaline to fight or flight with. But you can see the these and you know when it’s gone so the elevated heart rate and blood pressure soon drop.

With stress or anxiety, it’s not a clear physical threat. You might stress over your job, that you need to do this project, and do it well, or the company will go under, and you’ll lose your job, and you’ve got bills to pay, and the job market is not looking good right now, etc. So your brain is thinking over all the bad things that could happen, and starting to generate a fear response because you’d obviously fear this chain of events happening. Yet it’s a long term issue, and there is no clear end in sight. Certain jobs might put you in a position where job security is not great and so you are always stressed. So your brain is telling your body bad things will happen, you’re in danger, and cortisol the stress hormone is released. Your body is constantly got elevated heart rate and blood pressure, because it doesn’t understand the threat. And there is nowhere for this to go.

Under exercise however, your heart is just responding to your needs and working more as it is needed, all that work is done just for those muscles you are using

Stress and anxiety restricts your veins, making them smaller and harder to pump blood throughout the body. Exercise just increases blood flow that way the body has more access to oxygen

Considering the plumbing example, why is a sauna considered to be healthy. As it increases heart rate with no outlet for blood pressure

It’s also due to the “flight or fight” hormone cortisol burning through your system. Too much of that stuff in a steady diet of stress and anger, and your body takes a real beating. Think Type A’s and all their heart attacks. Not good.