Increased risk for peripheral artery disease by stress at Work
People suffering from work-related Stress more frequently, and diseases due to the peripheral Arteries, such as atherosclerosis in a hospital, than those who do not suffer from work stress. This emerges from a recent American study.
Researchers from the American Heart Association illuminated the complex relationships between psychosocial factors and cardiovascular health. This showed that Stress at work is associated with an increased risk for the development of peripheral arterial disease is related. The study was recently published in a special issue of the “Journal of the American Heart Association”.
What is peripheral arterial disease?
The peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a cardiovascular disease that occurs when cholesterol or other fatty substances impeding blood in the blood vessels and accumulate the flow of blood. This happens particularly often in the legs, so leg pain when walking on such a disease can indicate. The bottlenecks in the blood vessels to increase if left untreated, the risk for heart diseases and strokes. Over 200 million people worldwide are affected by peripheral artery disease. Nevertheless, the risk factors are considered to be not sufficiently understood.
Work-related Stress leads to more PAD-hospital admissions
Work-related Stress and occupational stress refers to psychological and social Stress at work, which is often the result of high expectations combined with a lower degree of personal control. Previous studies have linked atherosclerotic disease in conjunction with Stress. The current investigation focused on the relationship between work-related Stress and the associated hospital treatment due to peripheral artery disease.
Data from 139,000 Participants evaluated
The research team analysed the data from 139,000 men and women. The data come from eleven different studies, conducted in the years 1985 up to 2008 in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and England. The average age of the Participants was at the beginning of the studies, between 39 and 49 years. All of the subjects, and subjects had to start of study no history of peripheral artery disease.
In the investigation of individual risk factors such as age, gender, BMI, Smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity level, Presence of Diabetes, and the socio-economic Position taken into account were.
Almost 13 Years Of Observation Time
During the average follow-up period of 12.8 years, a total of 667 persons were treated for peripheral artery disease in the hospital. After adjustment for all known risk factors, the research showed the team that 1.4 times more people were hospitalized with work-related Stress due to such diseases as people who do not suffer from this kind of Stress.
Possible reasons for the connection
Stress is associated with increased inflammation and higher blood sugar levels. Although there is little evidence for a relationship between work Stress and heart disease, you could Stress contribute to complications and exacerbations of peripheral arterial disease, suggest the researchers.
Limitations of the study
The research team points out that only hospital-treated peripheral arterial disease was recorded, which means that the results can not be used on less severe forms of the disease generalized. Also, certain health information such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels, were not available.
Good stress management is gaining importance
The harmful effects of Stress to be substantiated by more studies. A successful stress management seems to be gaining to the preservation of health, more and more relevance. For more information about stress management, see the article, “stress relief: de-Stress made easy”. (vb)