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To most Americans, the 9/11 terrorist attacks were shocking, frightening, enraging.

Newly published research suggests they were also, quite literally, sickening.

Two University of California, Irvine, researchers report the tragedy triggered a large and lingering rise in self-reported health problems, as well as visits to medical professionals, across the nation.

Among a nationally representative sample of about 2,000 American adults, reports of physical ailments increased 18 percent over the three years following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“Those who watched the attacks live on TV were most likely to report an increase in physical health ailments over time,” E. Alison Holman and Roxane Cohen Silver write in the journal Social Science and Medicine. “This finding was most pronounced for individuals who experienced high levels of pre-9/11 health problems.”