Work Stress Causes Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure & Obesity

Everyone knows how stressful your job can get if you let things get out of control emotionally. You know what I mean. Your boss is giving you a hard time, you have to listen to the annoying workplace gossip every day, and not to mention catching hell from co-workers (because of incompetence and/or attitude). Among other things.

Having to deal with the day to day demand in the workplace can be very challenging and very trying on your mind and body. In a nutshell, things can get really stressful very fast. I’m sure you know that stress is part of the job but are you aware of health risks you are putting your body through while experiencing this stress on a daily basis?

Studies show that Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the U.S. according to a Finnish study. Employees who experienced unfairness in the workplace were very likely to end up with CHD.

The bottom line is, people want to feel meaningful. So when you feel like you are not being respected or your opinion doesn’t matter, you’re at an increased risk of heart disease.

People who are prone to stress reactions are likely to have difficulty managing on a day-to-day basis. In addition to this, employees who are very stressed and distressed at work are likely to turn to tobacco, alcohol, and food (weight gain/obesity). They will end up with high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

How do you get stressed?

When you get stressed out, your stress hormones elevate---cortisol and norepinephrine—increase in concentration in the blood. At this point, people have different organ vulnerabilities. As Dr John Garrison PhD would say, “we believe that each person has different organ vulnerabilities.

Clearly mounting evidence shows that stress can cause some very specific adverse health effects. Having stress makes it harder to control diabetes (rising blood glucose levels). In other words, your body raises bloog sugar levels to help boost energy in response to stressful situations.

Stress also influences your behavior. Chronic stress gets in the way of putting information that we know about health behaviors into action. When you’re under stress, M&Ms are for lunch, says Joe Piscatella, president of Institute for Fitness and health and author of the Road to a healthy Heart Runs Through The Kitchen.

How To Deal With Stress At Work

There many ways to calm down in the workplace. The first thing you need to do is look at things objectively. Ask yourself what is making you most stressed at work and who is making you more stressed at work? What do you need to address to this individual if you are being stressed out about a particular person.

If it’s just nerves, or you are feeling the pressure of projects, or the day to day hustle, then you can simply take a break at your desk, or walk outside and take some breaths until you calm your nerves and then proceed back to work.

Being stressed at work is no joke and no one should have to go through that just to make a buck.