NEW YORK (CBS NEWS) – Can losing your cool be good for you? According to a new German study, people who express their anger live two years longer, on average, than those who bottle up their rage.

After analyzing 6,000 patients, researchers found that those who internalized their angry feelings ran the risk of an elevated pulse, high blood pressure and other serious ailments.

Dr. Janet Taylor, a psychiatrist who specializes in stress management, spoke about the study and how to interpret it. “It’s really how to express appropriate anger,” she said. “And people who keep it in, hostility…people who get depressed…certainly have a higher risk for having cardiovascular disease, like heart attacks and even sudden death.”

But Taylor added that the key word is “appropriate,” and that does not include throwing things or punching your fist through a wall. She suggests channeling anger into something constructive, like forming a group or starting a petition.