Job Stress Fuels Disease

The daily rigors of work, such as tight deadlines and long hours, can lead to job burnout, a state scientists are beginning to link with serious ailments.

Studies have shown that workplace stress can lead to an increase in rates of heart disease, flu virus, metabolic syndrome and high blood pressure. One study found that stress can negate the heart-healthy aspects of a physically active job, leading to thicker arteries in physically active and stressed workers compared with active, non-stressed employees.

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Signs of Stress

Ask yourself these questions to see if you're experiencing symptoms of burnout:

Do you find yourself being more cynical, critical and sarcastic at work?
Have you lost the ability to experience joy?
Do you drag yourself into work and have trouble getting started once you arrive?
Have you become more irritable and less patient with co-workers, customers or clients?
Do you feel that you face insurmountable barriers at work?
Do you feel that you lack the energy to be consistently productive?
Do you no longer feel satisfaction from your achievements?
Do you have a hard time laughing at yourself?
Are you tired of your co-workers asking if you're OK?
Do you feel disillusioned about your job?
Are you self-medicating—using food, drugs or alcohol—to feel better or to simply not feel?
Have your sleep habits or appetite changed?
Are you troubled by headaches, neck pain or lower back pain?

The scientists studied Israeli workers, who were apparently healthy initially, from 1998 to 2003. Nearly 77 percent of the workers were men, with an average age of 43 years. The subjects had a range of occupations, which the scientists divided into five categories: senior management, middle management or supervisory—jobs like engineers, teachers and computer workers— nonprofessional and self-employed persons.

To figure out if the cause of diabetes was mediated by blood pressure, the researchers examined a subset of the subjects—507 workers—for which they had tested for blood pressure. The burned-out workers showed lower blood pressure levels, indicating that it was not hypertension—high blood pressure—causing diabetes. An alternative explanation could be that stress triggers a spike in fatty acids in the blood and a drop in the "good" cholesterol, HDL—both factors associated with diabetes.

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.