Relax and Take a Deep Breath! Work Stress Doubles Heart Disease Risk
There are many causes of heart disease, especially people’s living habits. For example, eating abnormally, eating too many foods with high fat content, lack of exercise habits, and obesity, because obesity means too much body fat, high blood cholesterol concentration, etc.
In addition to the above reasons, work pressure will also increase the risk of heart disease. Longer working hours, more complex affairs, and higher efficiency requirements will increase the pressure faced at work. The following article will introduce the relationship between stress and heart disease.
Work stress has negative cardiovascular effects
High demands on the job and difficulties in executing decisions are causes of work stress. Work stress has a negative impact on the cardiovascular system, which usually does not decrease but increases steadily and over a long period of time.
According to a Finnish study, employees with high work pressure have twice the risk of heart disease than those with low work pressure. If a person is trapped by stress, does not have any social status and has a low salary, the risk of suffering from heart disease will increase by 2.4 times.
The research team used questionnaires, interviews and clinical examinations to collect information on stress, blood pressure, blood cholesterol concentration and body mass index (BMI). It was found that people with work stress are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease and have higher blood cholesterol concentrations and body mass index. To be able to cope with work stress, the body does not need more hormones and energy from fat, but rather stability and consistency.
Therefore, the hormonal response and fat triggered by stress are not used up and can lead to high blood pressure. Tachycardia and changes in lipid metabolism allow more atherosclerotic plaques to accumulate in blood vessels. The above reasons explain why stress can lead to heart disease.
In addition, a study from The Lancet also showed that work stress is positively related to the mortality rate of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, especially among men with work stress. In the body, the mortality rate from cardiovascular or metabolic diseases will be significantly increased.
Cardiovascular disease research
For patients with high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease, excessive stress may be one of the main causes of myocardial infarction. A comprehensive report reveals the results of 13 different studies conducted in seven countries.
The study included participants without coronary heart disease (CHD) and monitored their health for 7.5 years. Research results show that among nearly 200,000 people, 30,214 people often feel work pressure, which comes from heavy workload, time pressure and insufficient decision-making freedom.
The researchers calculated that about 3.4% of the participants felt work pressure, which means that if everyone was satisfied with their work, at least 3.4% of the participants could be prevented from suffering from coronary heart disease.
Stress leads you to an unhealthy lifestyle
When you are about to face a major exam or the work completion day is approaching, do you feel particularly stressed and choose to eat more fried food or smoke a few more cigarettes to relax?
Whether it’s good or bad, we always need some way to relieve the accumulated stress. Being in a high-stress environment for a long time may increase your choice of stress-reducing methods that may be harmful to your body, such as smoking, drinking, or eating junk food.
Work stress increases the risk of heart disease, but work stress is almost unavoidable. It is unlikely that we can reduce the risk of heart disease by eliminating work stress. But we can still maintain a healthy heart by working hard to quit smoking, developing the habit of regular exercise, and staying optimistic and thinking positively in all situations.
In addition, you can also use leisure methods such as meditation, walking, listening to music, writing, painting, and watching movies to help relieve psychological stress. If you find that you have difficulty handling stress, or you really want to find someone It is also a good choice to talk and seek help from a counselor. Don’t dwell in stressful emotions alone, allowing stress to accumulate and brew, which will have a negative impact on the body and mind.