British study says workplace stress can lead to heart disease

LONDON - No one is particularly surprised that a stressful day at work raises blood pressure, but a new study in Britain suggests that on-the-job tension also can lead to heart disease and diabetes.

A study of more than 10,000 British civil servants over a 14-year period has found a possible biological explanation for why workplace stress adversely effects health. The findings were published online Friday in the British Medical Journal.

Researchers from University College London discovered links between levels of work stress and metabolic syndrome, which is associated with a group of factors - such as obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol - that increase the risk of heart disease and Type II diabetes.

“Employees with chronic work stress have more than double the odds of the syndrome than those without work stress, after other factors are taken into account,” the researchers reported.

The researchers studied 10,308 workers in London between the ages of 35 and 55, checking in with the civil servants four times between 1985 and 1999. They also took into account factors such as lack of exercise, smoking and social class.

Male workers who suffered from chronic work stress were twice as likely to develop metabolic syndrome than those who said they had little workplace pressure. And women with chronic stress, though they were a small group in the study, were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome.

The researchers said it was possible that prolonged exposure to work stress affects the nervous system, and that it could reduce biological resilience, which would disturb the body’s physiological balance. 

AP

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