Stressed out at work? It's probably affecting your health.
Chronic stress and overwork trashes your body. Study after study shows that a constantly activated fight-or-flight response can change your immune system in terrible ways and damage your heart, lungs and blood vessels as well.
When we’re young, our systems are more resilient. We bounce back, stress after stress. But as we get older, the research shows, it takes longer for our bodies to bounce back, sometimes many days. The damage done to our systems can be permanent.
Here’s what the research is showing:
One of the hallmarks of an overstressed system is inflammation.
A study of 19 emergency room doctors working 24-hour shifts found that they had double the amount of an inflammation marker called Interleukin-8 at the end of their shift compared to the beginning. It’s the same marker that’s constantly elevated in women with fibromyalgia, a syndrome associated with widespread pain.
One of the cells affected is called the macrophage. It’s a white blood cell that attacks invaders.
In the ER doctors working 24-hour shifts, researchers found the number of circulating macrophages was elevated, and stayed elevated for up to five days after their 24-hour shift. This was especially true for the older physicians participating in the study.
Other hallmarks of the stressed person include elevated cortisol, which is involved in the fight-or-flight response, and something called HSP72. The HSP72 protein is what stops cells from inappropriately activating their kamikaze protocol. Programmed cell-suicide exists to protect us from cancer. If that system is turned off, we’re more vulnerable.
Inflammation is also linked to hardening of the arteries, heart disease and depression.
Stress can kill.
A University College of London study found that people with high work stress and little freedom to make their own decisions were 23 percent more likely to suffer heart attacks. A study of women with high workplace stress conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston showed that women were 40 percent more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes and require treatment for hardened arteries.
Fear of job insecurity especially was associated with a risk of high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol.
A Finish study that looked at that country’s health registry over three decades found that risk of heart disease mortality more than doubled for people having a high-demand job with low control, or a job with no chance for advancement and low social approval.
Will stress-reducing techniques make a difference? Here are three proven strategies:
1) Studies show that participating in sports for at least an hour a week can make a major difference, lowering risk by half. So take tennis lessons, join a pick-up basketball game, do yoga or swim.
2) A Canadian study found that leading a healthy lifestyle – not smoking, not drinking to excess – likewise was associated with a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
3) Meditation has also been shown to lower anxiety and risk of stroke.
A University of Massachusetts-based program called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction has attracted the likes of Basketball giant Phil Jackson and Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington.
Classes are being offered here starting this month in both West Palm Beach and Boca Raton. For more information on the West Palm Beach class, contact mindful@saricenter.org or call (561) 578-5901. Details on the Boca Raton class are here: