Is Your Job Killing You? Maybe

From:Internet   Author:Admin   Time:2007-04-19   Font: [big center small]  

Aug. 15, 2001 -- You don't necessarily have to be in the French Foreign Legion for your job to be dangerous. You could be an accountant.

Add 'on-the-job stress' to the list of heart disease risk factors that your doctor should regularly ask about, French researchers suggest.

Most of us have heard about white coat hypertension, the phenomenon that occurs when the doctor walks in to check your blood pressure and it instantly shoots up. Now there's on-the-job high blood pressure, the researchers report in the July issue of the journal Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

People who perceive their job as stressful -- whether they are secretaries, nuclear engineers, brain surgeons, teachers, or editors -- tend to have higher blood pressure while working than those workers who do not feel stressed-out on-the-job, according to Jean Pierre Fauvel, MD, of the H?pital E. Herriot in Lyon, France and colleagues.

The new findings boost a growing body of evidence suggesting that work-related stress including long hours, low reward, hectic pace, and lack of social support can increase a person's risk of heart disease by increasing their blood pressure.

They also suggest that an "individuals perception of strain should be considered a cardiovascular risk factor," Fauvel concludes.

But don't quit your job to protect your heart. Instead, make changes at the workplace or learn some coping techniques such as meditation or yoga, according to one American stress expert.

To arrive at their finding, researchers measured worksite blood pressure in over 300 healthy individuals with normal blood pressure aged 18-55 who work for the same chemical company. Of these, 70 workers had their blood pressure monitored for a 24-hour period. Study participants also filled out a standard questionnaire assessing job strain and stress.

Individuals who reported the highest job strain had a diastolic blood pressure (the second number in a blood pressure reading) that was about five points higher during working hours than that of their colleagues who reported less stressful jobs. But both groups had similar pressure after quitting time, the study showed.

And the findings held even after researchers accounted for other variables that affect blood pressure such as smoking, alcohol, salt intake, and weight.

"Over time, [such increases] certainly can influence heart disease risk," says Redford Williams, MD, the director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and the author of several books including Lifeskills: 8 Simple Ways to Build Stronger Relationships.

"One of the theories about how stress leads to cardiovascular disease -- whether hypertension or coronary artery diseases -- is through increased blood pressure or fight-flight responses under stress, and raising blood pressure even a little will increase heart disease risk," he tells WebMD.

"Every step-up is a step-up in risk [and] if you spend a good part of your day at work and go around with a higher blood pressure, you are increasing your risk," he says.

There are two basic things that you can do about on-the job stress, Williams tells WebMD, and both begin with identifying what it is about work that is stressing you so.

"It could be something about the job that you can take action about, such as working at home occasionally or telling your officemate who is continually telling you all his problems that you'd just as soon not hear it," he says.

Or, you could just change your reaction to perceived stress. "Saying 'I have to chill' rather than just going around feeling stress can make a difference," he says.

"Say 'this is the way the office is' and meditate, relax, or exercise during lunch hour to take an edge off," Williams says.

But remember, other habits that may seem to relieve stress such as smoking or going to happy hour on a regular basis may do more heart harm than good.

"Every beer, high ball, or glass of wine a day past two raises your blood pressure [and] smoking or drinking lots of caffeinated beverages such as coffee or diet coke also compounds the situation," he says.

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