--- title: Stress, Heart Health and Movies: Study Warns of Possible Dangers description: A small study showed a direct link between cardiac changes and emotional stress brought on by movies canonical: https://time.com/102839/intense-movies-may-be-dangerous-for-people-with-weak-hearts/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-16T16:57:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:53:19.541Z article:section: Health og:title: Stress, Heart Health and Movies: Study Warns of Possible Dangers og:description: A small study showed a direct link between cardiac changes and emotional stress brought on by movies og:url: https://time.com/102839/intense-movies-may-be-dangerous-for-people-with-weak-hearts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd71644012871a0ec/69868fe33bc999b2a31a385b/vertical-limit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1800 og:image:height: 1013 og:image:alt: Robin Tunney In 'Vertical Limit' og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stress, Heart Health and Movies: Study Warns of Possible Dangers twitter:description: A small study showed a direct link between cardiac changes and emotional stress brought on by movies twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd71644012871a0ec/69868fe33bc999b2a31a385b/vertical-limit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Intense Movies May Be Dangerous for People With Weak Hearts > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 16, 2014 4:57 PM UTC  A scene from the 2000 movie 'Vertical Limit' A scene from the 2000 movie 'Vertical Limit'Columbia Pictures/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 16, 2014 4:57 PM UTC It’s no surprise to anyone who’s felt their heart jump into their throat while watching a scary movie that these scenes can be stressful. But can that stress be measured by scientists — and is it dangerous? In a small [study](http://circep.ahajournals.org/content/early/2014/05/14/CIRCEP.113.000909.abstract) published yesterday in the American Heart Association journal _Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology_, researchers tracked how emotional stress — in this case, watching a harrowing five-minute clip of the rock-climbing movie _Vertical Limit_ — affects the heart. They measured the blood pressure, heart rhythm and breathing speed of 19 heart patients while they watched the scene and found that the clip affected the stability of their heart beat while also increasing blood pressure and how quickly the patients were breathing. “If someone already has a weakened heart, or if they experience a much more extreme stress,” said study author Dr. Ben Hanson of University College London, “the effect could be much more destabilizing and dangerous.” (Researchers recreated those breathing patterns without subjecting the patients to the clip and found no such change in heart rate, suggesting that the emotional stress — and not just the increased respiration — was to blame.) In a [statement](http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0514/150414-heart-stress) about the study, Dr. Ben Hanson, one of its authors, said that the results did vary but the observation of cardiac changes was consistent. So, though there’s no reason for healthy movie fans to worry, those with preexisting heart problems might want to take it under consideration. 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