MONDAY, Oct. 10, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Intense anger or heavy physical exertion may be triggers for a first heart attack in some people, new research suggests.

In the study of more than 12,000 people, both intense activity and intense emotions each seemed to double the odds of suffering a heart attack in the next hour. That risk rose about threefold when people were upset and exerted themselves at the same time.

The study is far from the first to suggest -- and it does not prove -- that bouts of anger or physical exertion can trigger a heart attack.

But, it's larger than past studies, and more diverse -- covering first-time heart attack patients in 52 countries, said Barry Jacobs, a spokesman for the American Heart Association who was not involved in the research.

"This confirms that blowing your top is not good -- for other people, or for you," Jacobs said.

Do the findings mean that everyone who gets angry will see a similar spike in their heart attack risk?

"Common sense says no," said Jacobs, director of behavioral sciences at the Crozer-Keystone Family Medicine Residency Program in Springfield, Pa.

He pointed to the underlying biology of it all: Intense emotions or activity can drive up blood pressure and heart rate, and cause blood vessels to constrict. That, in turn, may cause any artery-clogging "plaques" to rupture and cut off blood flow to the heart -- prompting a heart attack.

But a person would have to harbor those plaques in the first place, Jacobs said.

In the study, researchers asked the heart attack patients whether they had been angry or emotionally upset in the hour before their heart attack, or during the same hour the day before. They also asked about heavy physical exertion.

The study did not dig for details -- such as the type of physical activity, or whether a person had an angry outburst or silently simmered.

"What we felt was important was to ask the same person about two different time periods," said lead researcher Dr. Andrew Smyth, of the Population Health Research Center at McMaster University, in Canada.