When you receive the Seal you will learn to recognize stress and take steps to avoid its harmful effects. New research shows how stress at work can lead to heart disease, especially for those under 50.
Researchers in the United Kingdom followed over 10,000 London civil servants for over 12 years in compiling the data about how much stress they had related to their work and how likely they were to develop coronary heart disease.
The researchers studied the incidence of coronary heart disease including the death rate, and studied the heart including heart rate variability, myocardial infarctions, and angina.
They also looked at both levels of the stress hormone cortisol and what is called metabolic syndrome: belly fat, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides.
Then the researchers took behavioral factors into consideration--what kind of diet did they eat? Did they get enough exercise? Did they smoke? Or Did they drink? They studied just how stress at work affected the person's likelihood of getting heart disease?
After following up for 12 years, results showed that there is a connection between stress at work and coronary heart disease. And it is stronger for people under 50 years of age.
Men and women under 50 have a 68 percent higher risk of developing coronary heart disease when they experience chronic stress at work than those who do not claim they have work-related stress.
Older people were closer to retirement age so they were not as likely to experience stress at work. For the younger people especially, this study shows work stress connected with the biological mechanisms that lead to coronary heart disease.
The research found that those who were stressed at work had lowered heart rate variability and vagal tone. And those with a lot of stress at work also had higher morning levels of cortisol.
When the researchers took into account the behavioral differences of those who had more stress from work, like the
That means that stress was having a direct effect on body biology--affecting the autonomic nervous system and the neuroendocrine functioning directly. The unhealthy behaviors were not causing the biological effects.
Since the ANS and neuroendocrine functions were affected, signals to the heart sent by the vagus nerve were affected and the result was that the heart was considered unstable.
But behavior also played a part in increasing the chance of coronary heart disease. This study attributes 1/3 of the increased chance of heart disease to
How can you reduce work-related and other kinds of stress in your life? Both exercise and rest can help. But to start you need to change your
And you can start by making a simple change. Quit drinking coffee altogether and begin to drink tea. Drink green tea, oolong tea, white tea. This will boost your body's health with the many benefits of drinking tea and lower your caffeine intake.
When you are sealed God will help you overcome stress, whether it is from work or any other area in your life. God will reduce your stress and lessen your chance of dying of heart disease when you receive the Seal.