Never again will the words “work is killing me” be uttered in such a relaxed manner. The suggestions of work related stress increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease is not to be taken lightly.

Work stress appears to affect the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. However I’m not naïve, some stress is unavoidable and whilst it is recommended to attempt to reduce stress in this environment, for many it may be more achievable to reduce the affected variables which likely contribute to the end result, in this case, mortality.

A study published in the European Heart Journal (Chandola et al., 2008) focused on the self-reported health behaviours as well as incidence of cardiovascular disease in comparison to work stress and found some interesting results. Work stress, defined by higher reporting of important decision making and lower job security amongst other parameters, presented a linear relationship to incidence of cardiovascular disease and mortality, meaning that in the groups reporting higher stressful incidents, there was a greater prevalence of cardiovascular disease and mortality.

The findings also demonstrated that the individuals under greater work stress consumed less fruits and vegetables, drank more beer and exercised less. All of which likely contributed to higher cholesterol, blood pressure and metabolic syndrome demonstrated in those groups.

Whilst stress itself appears to have detrimental effects to long term risk of cardiovascular disease, the associated poor lifestyle decisions may have a greater effect.

How can all of this be avoided? It is likely that those under significant stress may make sub-optimal lifestyle choices as a way to relax, save time, socialise or more than likely, a combination of all three. Replacing one negative habit for a more beneficial one may have significant benefit, increasing activity can improve social life as well as reduce stress after a busy day in the office, scheduling relaxation time may allow greater productivity when you get back into the work place reducing stress and saving time in the long run.

It’s not for me to say how you should or shouldn’t conduct your day to day activities around your work, however next time you slam the phone down and reach for your third donut, it may be worth thinking about your long term health.

Jack Barton (Researcher, Rescon Ltd)

References
Chandola, T., Britton, A., Brunner, E., Hemingway and H., Malik. (2008). Work stress and coronary heart disease: what are the mechanisms?. European Heart Journal, 29(5), 640-648.