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After decades of
exhaustive research, it has been proved that there is a link between stress and
a whole range of medical conditions. Stress triggers hormonal and chemical
defense mechanisms, and mobilizes the nervous system for the `fight or flight'
response. As one study concluded: `The process enhances one's level of arousal
because the cognitive, neurological, cardiovascular and muscular systems are
stimulated as the body prepares for an emergency in response to a sudden shock.
The heart rate is increased ... glucose stored in glycogen in the liver is
released for energy, blood supplies are redirected from the skin to the brain
and skeletal muscles and the secretion of sweat increases.
The theory is that
this evolutionary response to danger was dissipated by fighting or running –
options not available to people at work, who instead have to endure the
threatening or hostile conditions. This can cause stress, which is
`characterized by emotional vulnerability, persistent negative emotions,
elevated hormonal base levels, hyperactivity of the automatic nervous system so
that the body never relaxes and tendencies to experience psycho-somatic
symptoms. Over time this state of affairs may cause illness due to wear and tear
on tissues.'
Stress can promote
an already existing cancer or heart disease, or it can trigger these conditions
where there is an existing vulnerability. There is evidence that low control in
the work environment, and the stress it can cause, is associated with an
increased risk of coronary heart disease; one study found that exposing workers
to stress for at least half their working lives made them 25 per cent more
likely to die from a heart attack, and increased their odds of a fatal stroke by
50 per cent. It concluded that `long-term work-related stress is worse for the
heart than ageing thirty years or gaining forty pounds in weight'.
Another study found
that men who work over sixty hours a week without regular sleep may be doubling
their risk of heart attack, while those working forty-eight hours a week are
doubling the risk of a serious heart condition.26 Giving employees more variety
in tasks and a stronger say in decision-making may decrease the risk, according
to the Whitehall Study of British civil servants.
A Finnish study
found that `people who faced a combination of high demands at work, but poor
control over their job, had double the risk of death from heart disease compared
with colleagues who had less stressful occupations. Workers whose job involved
high demands, but had low salaries and a lack of social approval, had a risk of
death from cardiovascular disease that was 2.4 times higher than those whose
jobs involved low stress. That finding ominously describes the position of many
public sector workers. At its worst, stress can kill.
The more common
impact of stress on health is to lower immunity. The Bristol study found a much
higher incidence of a wide range of medical conditions amongst those reporting
high stress, from high blood pressure, nervous trouble and depression to breast
cancer.
Those with high
stress were more likely to have had back-ache or sciatica, indigestion,
Irritable Bowel Syndrome, constipation and piles. There are strong links between
stress and ulcers, and those with high stress were more likely to have
difficulty sleeping, more vulnerable to coughs, sore throats and headaches, and
more likely to complain of chronic tiredness.
Surveys of people
working long hours routinely show a high proportion reporting that they feel
very tired, and this is twice as likely to affect women as men. Cumulative
tiredness can result in fatigue, which is used as a medical term for the
deterioration of physiological or mental faculties caused by working long hours.
It can be exacerbated by the interruption of the body's own natural rhythms by
night shifts.
The result of
mental fatigue is that the mind's reasoning powers and reactions slow down. The
impact of such fatigue is keenly felt by long-hours workers, of whom 25 per cent
claim that their hours have led to some physical ailment, while the same
proportion say it has had a detrimental effect on their mental health. Yet
ill-health didn't stop these long-hours workers: 71 per cent admitted that they
had carried on working even when they felt unwell.
The response to
such fatigue can often make the problem worse; the `slob-out' tendency
complicates the causal link between stress and illness, because a stressful job
often leads to behavior which contributes to heart disease. You come home after
a stressful day and slump on the sofa with a bottle of wine or several beers, or
you smoke more; you depend on biscuits, sweet fizzy drinks or grab some chips at
lunch to give you the temporary energy surge you get from sweet or fatty foods.
There's less time and energy to get some exercise, or to cook a proper meal.
Stress is also
closely associated with back pain – the second biggest cause of lost working
days. One American study found that psychosocial job-stress factors such as
mental workload, work pressure and lack of job control can contribute to
musculoskeletal pain because of chronic low-level muscle tension; stress-induced
over-breathing may also be a factor.
Another study found
that a lack of pauses in muscle activity can contribute to musculoskeletal
disorders; that would explain, the study argued, why their incidence is higher
among women, because of their double shift of work and caring; it would also
explain the increase in such disorders as a result of work intensification.
