15 Dec Can High Stress Jobs Kill You?
Recently a study of over 138,000 participants looked to see if high stress jobs increase our risk for strokes. The study followed these middle-aged adults for approximately 10 years.
Job Strain was categorized into 4 groups as follows:
- High Strain (High demand, low control) – include jobs found in service industry workers (waitresses and nursing aides, for example).
- Passive (Low demand, low control) – include jobs performed by janitors, miners, and other manual laborers.
- Active (High demand, high control) – include jobs performed by physicians, teachers, and engineers.
- Low Strain (Low demand, high control) – jobs such as those done by natural scientists and architects.
High Strain jobs were the only group to show an increase in the rate of strokes when compared to the Low Strain group. Women were slightly at more risk than men.
“Many mechanisms may be involved in the association between high-stress job and the risk for stroke,” said Dr Xu. “The most important is that high-stress jobs may lead to more unhealthy behaviors, such as poor eating habits, smoking, and a lack of exercise. So it is of vital importance for subjects with high-stress occupations to address these lifestyle issues.”
“Second, psychotherapy methods aiming to help [the] individual to cope with psychological stress, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, relaxation therapy, and multimodal interventions, may be needed in high-risk subpopulations with high- strain occupations combined with other cardiovascular risk factors, especially in women,” Dr Xu added.
So, will high stress jobs kill you? Maybe, but remember that if you are in a “High Strain” job, you have the power to adapt and change to mitigate the risk. Continue to modify the stress factors that you can. Seek professional help if needed. Exercise daily, eat balanced meals, get adequate rest, meditate and pray daily, show gratitude, do something kind for the people around you, and invest in the lives of the people you care the most about.
Here’s to the Journey!
(David W. Ball, MD, an Internal Medicine physician, founder of NuVitality Health – a wellness education company, and co-founder of Life Changing Fitness – a fitness facility for Every Body)
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