How High Stress Jobs Can Lower Life Expectancy

We have all heard that stress can be detrimental to your overall health, but new research reminds us of the importance of managing stress from your employment on a regular basis. For jobs that tend to be associated with higher levels of stress, workers may be actually changing their DNA over time. 

Research proves that if a person is chronically stressed at his or her job, there are vitally important parts of their DNA that can be eroded over time. For people with chronically high stress levels, the telomeres, the protective edges around DNA strands, become shorter and can lead to errors in DNA strands. These errors have a direct impact on how long we are able to live because mutations in the DNA strands can lead to increased risk of getting cancer. 

It is possible to mitigate some of the damage done by stress by making good lifestyle choices, such as sticking with a healthy diet and getting daily exercise. However, chronic stress can lead to a serious breakdown in the immune system, which means that you are more susceptible to disease and infection. Your body has less energy available to fight off harmful bacteria. Therefore, even though you may be able to take steps in other aspects of your life to make healthy choices and increase your longevity, stress during your daily employment can still take a serious toll on your lifespan. 

If you are experiencing high levels of stress at work, you should not be ashamed to speak with a mental health care professional to evaluate if there are any coping mechanisms you could try to reduce your stress levels throughout the day. You may want to do an introspective analysis about whether a change in job would be healthier for you. If you feel that you are unable to make a job change because of financial reasons, then you may want to spend some time evaluating your personal savings and budget to see if any adjustments can be made. Remember that your health is the most valuable thing you have.

Your Job Can Influence Your Heart Health

You job and career can influence your level of risk for heart disease and stroke, according to a new study.

Middle-aged people who work in food service, office jobs, or sales jobs have more risk factors for heart disease than people in managerial or professional jobs.

Firefighters, police, health care support workers, and truckers are all more likely to have these markers, the researchers said.

Individuals who are older than 45 and who are in office or sales jobs are more likely to eat an unhealthy diet, smoke, be sedentary, and struggle with high blood pressure.

People in food service tended to have the worst diets, while truckers tended to have the highest smoking rates.

People employed under the "service" umbrella were much less likely to have ideal cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as a lower incidence of healthy BMI.

This heart risk profile is poor, and it was especially pronounced and frequent among protective service workers, which encompasses police, firefighters, and security guards.

To draw these conclusions, the researchers examined health data for more than 5,500 women and men over age 45 to assess heart health. They based the assessment on the American Heart Association's "Life's Simple 7," which include diet, BMI, smoking, physical activity, blood sugar, and cholesterol.

More than 88 percent of employees over the age of 45 did not smoke, and 78 percent of employees we healthy blood sugar levels. However, less than 41 percent had ideal heart health in the remaining five areas.

More than 20 percent of the transportation workers smoked; this was the highest rate among occupation groups in the study.

Two-thirds of sales and office workers had poor cholesterol levels and eating habits, and 80 percent were sedentary. Ninety percent of security guards, firefighters, and police were overweight or obese, and seventy five percent had poor blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Researchers found generally poor cardiovascular health in lower-paying jobs, compared to high-paying jobs.

The nature of the job can create challenges to being healthy. For example, people with desk jobs tend to have trouble getting enough active time.

To combat these challenges on the job, try taking a walk after lunch each day, meal prep your food for the week, or look into a stand-up desk.