Extend Your Life: Work Stress

Work Stress
If ever there were a job that had a lot of pressure, it was that of Keith Hayes, the tax appraiser in California who routinely fields calls from angry residents. "I've been threatened with violence before," he says. He can easily unwind in the morning and at night, but when he most needs to do so is the middle of the afternoon. That's why, with his blood pressure on the rise, Hayes decided to do something about it.

A recent study analyzing about 3,000 middle-aged men and women found that people with normal blood pressure lived five years longer than those with elevated pressure. But researchers are just beginning to understand stress's larger implications. According to a new study published in the British Medical Journal, London civil servants under chronic stress were twice as likely as those not stressed to develop metabolic syndrome, a set of conditions that include high cholesterol and abdominal obesity. "It's well established that stress at work is pretty bad for your mental well-being," says Tarani Chandola, senior lecturer at the University College London and the study's lead author. "What was not so clear before was how stress at work can affect more-physical outcomes like cardiovascular disease."

The current business climate can easily increase the anxiety load. Stress is the top fallout of companies cutting back on hiring, according to the National Business Group on Health; there's also a close connection between workplace stress and the amount of overtime employers are asking of their staff. So it's no wonder that at least some companies are beginning to address the issue. Google, for example, not only has a sand volleyball court at its headquarters but offers subsidized massages there.

But if your workplace isn't addressing the issue, you can still do a lot on your own. For starters, there's always standing up and taking a short walk out of the office. Don't think about your problems, just let your thoughts float in order to clear your mind. If you are deskbound, sit up straight and inhale deeply for six counts, pause and then exhale for four counts. Repeat this three times. If work is creating a lot of anxiety, try working more efficiently so you can leave earlier, or building in an extra half hour so when you go home, you're not haunted by everything in your inbox. "To tell you the truth, what you really need to do is work with your mind," says Dr. Woodson Merrell, director of integrative medicine at New York City's Beth Israel Medical Center. "Stress is all in your mind."

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Pages in This Report:
· Introduction
· Exercise
· Vacation
· Work Stress
· Sleep
· Diet