But, when they are out of control, excessive anger can injure the liver, excessive joy can injure the heart, excessive brooding can injure the spleen, excessive sadness can injure the lungs, and excessive fright can injure the kidneys. Anger arouses the ascent of qi. Joy induces sluggishness of the qi. Excessive sorrow dissipates the qi. Fear causes the descent of the qi.
Fright causes disturbance of the qi.
And worry causes stagnation of qi. Although it may at first sound peculiar that emotions may injure or kill a person, in fact, this happens every day. These are vivid examples of the reality of this proposition. We have heard of elderly people dying due to sudden joy causing an unstoppable fit of laughter. We have also heard of some elderly persons dying of heart attack caused by a sudden increase in blood pressure in turn due to getting angry.