Tweet

Work Stress Now The Major Cause Of Heart Disease

Written by: Dr. Paul Lanthois

Article Overview: Stress at work is often dismissed as an inevitable part of the job. New research is now showing that heart disease now may become an inevitable part of work stress...

Work Stress Now The Major Cause Of Heart Disease

"You're a heart attack waiting to happen," I exclaimed in a frustrated attempt to get Stefan to do something about the stress at his work. Unfortunately for people like Stefan who dismiss work stress as part of the job, new research is confirming its damaging role in the development of heart disease...

Results from astudy discussed at the at the XVI World Congress of Cardiology in May 2008 in Buenos Aires Work stress, resulting from great pressure at the work place, may increase the progression of atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries) by 46% in people who have "highly reactive personalities to stress".

The study, performed by researchers at the School of Public Health in Berkeley, U.S.A., found that the association of stress and very demanding work in a personality highly reactive to stress, results in the thickening of the internal walls of the carotid arteries and formation of atherosclerotic plaques which progressively obstruct blood flow. Both factors are markers of the progression of atherosclerosis that underlies cardiovascular disease.

In the most recent analysis of the INTERHEART study which covered 52 countries and a population of 25,000 patients it was estimated that from 20% to 30% of heart attacks can be attributed to psychological stress.

Amazingly psychological stress was shown to be a greater risk factor for a heart attack than:

Smoking

Diabetes

High blood pressure

And Obesity.



So often when focusing on ways to improve our health we tend to focus more on things like, diet, exercise and losing weight.

What is remarkable about these results are that they highlight the need to change our priorities in the way we handle work stress. Its is well known that giving up smoking, an improvement in your diet or starting up some form of exercise progrm will go a long way towards boosting your capacity to handle stress. However this new study is highlighting why so many diets, exrcise programs and quit smoking campaigns fail.

These study results suggest that before tackling abolishing your smoking habit you should tackle some of your more damaging thinking habits. Before addressing what you feed your mouth you need to pay greater attention to what you feed your mind. A new exercise program for your mind may reap a lot greater health benefit than exercising your body.

Related Articles
  The Risk of Heart Disease in Professional Women
  Stress Awareness Month and Your Health
  Stressful Childhoods Can Have Lasting Impacts
  Enjoy Seven (7) Health Benefits of Expressing Gratitude and Lead a More Productive and Less Stressful Life
  STRESS

Article Tags: cause of heart disease, heart disease, job, stress at work, stress work, work stress



Related Forum Posts
Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Success = Thinking (Head) + Heart (Feeling / Interest) + Hand (doing/ action). Success - H3 Robert
Re: Fashion - Nana, At you choice you may choose to research the fashion industry a bit more. There is obviously a Business side to it as well as a creative side to it. Find out all the types of roles that exist in the industry. Some that come to mind merchandiser, Window dresser, floor plan organizer (someone needs to determine the layout of a retail store to best sell the goods), fashion consultant (Yorkdale mall has fashion consultants that take you around and tell you what looks great on you - you also get a cut from the sales). This is what I've observed from the business side, you may know more. All these roles I've written about will help you grow as a business person and make the contacts in the industry...possible stepping stones. But further more you'll also notice that you need to develop some business acumen possibly tailored to the fashion industry. When I was at Ryerson I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur someday too. I knew I needed some basic business courses to get a foundation to build from. I was in a Tech/Business Major (I'm sure Fashion has something similar - Fashion/Business Major) and then started to create my own minor. Here are some of the courses I took: Marketing, Law, Entrepreneurial, Management, consulting.. and a few more . Also, I'm sure that within the Fashion Major there are also courses you have to take where you can use your creative side and create designs. Typically within a Major there are focuses you can choose - ask the program coordinator. Your next step is to do some research. 1. Visit Commercial retail outlets like H&M, Banana Republic, or jacob. Tell the Manager your doing some research for University and would like to know what types of Corporate roles exist aside from the roles on the retail floor (like sales associates). If she asks you to elaborate then you can use some of the roles I mentioned above. 2. With this information in hand you can visit the Ryerson Fashion department and inquire with the Program Coordinator on what focus within the Fashion Degree would help you the most. In my program there were 5 different focuses within the Tech/Business program. Just a quick aside. A good friend of mine too has a dream of fashion. he want to create a niche fashion line tailored to skinny men (I can't mention the style). He's in Business school but not in the Fashion program... He's in International Business but all his Minor courses are tailored to running a successful business ... similar to the ones I mentioned above for myself. I have no doubt in my mind he'll make it 'cos his vision is that strong.
laptop vs. Desktop - I'm not a heavy gamer or graphics person so a Laptop is ideal for me for all the obvious reasons (portability, wireless, work on the go, etc etc) Major downside is the battery power and the cost to replace it - half as much as the cost of the laptop on my current IBM.
Re: Infographic: The 4 Main Stress Factors - I'd like to reference that article in my next blog post as well.. I worked in sales for years and found that days when I was positive, relaxed where days that it was easy to sell. On days that I was stressed I found I would not reach target. Stress is good at times, but it very easily becomes problematic. I do a lot of very physical exercise and work now, to manage it.
Re: Five Personality Traits of Successful Business Owners - 1. Focus 2. Ability to Adapt 3. Hard Work 4. Good planning 5. People Skills


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Ten Things You Can Do To Be a Better Leader

10 Steps to Excelling at Franchise Sales

Are You Listening?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.