Staying Healthy Despite All the Job Stress
What’s the Latest Development?
Health experts have long observed the link between work-related stress and conditions such as heart disease, but eliminating the pressure that comes with professional life is largely unrealistic for many. “Researchers found that job strain—defined as having a lot of demands at work, but little control—was tied at a 25 percent higher chance of having a heart attack or dying of heart problems.” So to live healthier while maintaining a working life, health experts have found that moderate exercise, combined with reducing activities like drinking and smoking, can help counteract the effects of stress.
What’s the Big Idea?
Researchers [at University College London recently] combined the results of seven European studies that surveyed 102,000 people about their general lifestyle habits and health, including how much strain they were under at work. At the start of the study, none of the participants had heart disease, but seven years later, there were about 1,100 heart attacks or deaths from heart disease. “Rates of heart problems over a decade ranged from 12 cases per 1,000 generally healthy people without job strain to 31 per 1,000 people with job strain and multiple lifestyle risks, such as rarely exercising or having more than three or four alcoholic drinks a day.”
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