A
stressful work environment coupled with a lack of sleep can result in a threefold-higher
risk of cardiovascular death in people with hypertension.
Recent research looked at
how stress and insomnia affected the
health of employees who have hypertension, and the news
was sobering.
The researchers found
that in comparison with their peers who slept well and did not experience
work-related stress, hypertensive employees with stress and insomnia were three
times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease.
Researchers analyzed data
from nearly 2,000 employees whose ages ranged from 25 to 65 years. These
workers had high blood pressure, but, at
the time of the study, they did not have cardiovascular disease or diabetes.
Although those with
either job-related stress or insomnia did have an increased risk of
cardiovascular death, the risk was higher when people had both of these factors
present in their everyday lives.
"These are insidious
problems," notes Prof. Karl-Heinz Ladwig of the German Research Centre for
Environmental Health and the Medical Faculty, Technical University of Munich.
"The risk is not having
one tough day and no sleep. It is suffering from a stressful job and poor sleep
over many years, which fade energy resources and may lead to an early
grave."
Prof. Karl-Heinz Ladwig
Hypertension is a major
risk factor for many
Researchers define hypertension
as high blood pressure in the arteries.
According to the American
Heart Association (AHA), normal blood pressure readings for adults sit
below 120/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), while people with hypertension
have either a systolic pressure (upper number) of 130 mm Hg or higher or a
diastolic pressure (lower number) of 80 mm Hg or above.
High blood pressure is a
widespread problem in the United States, with the AHA estimating that close
to 103 million adults have hypertension.
This number equates to
almost half of all adults in the U.S., and experts note that the death rate
stemming from hypertension is increasing. In fact, it rose by nearly 11% from 2005
to 2015.
Many factors can increase a person's risk
of heart disease, some of which
are uncontrollable, such as increasing age, biological sex, and heredity.
However, other factors —
such as smoking habits, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure,
physical inactivity, and being overweight — are modifiable.
High blood pressure is a
significant risk factor for heart disease because when blood pressurebecomes elevated, the
heart has to work harder to pump blood around the body.
This extra work thickens
the muscles of the heart, and it can also harden or damage artery walls. As a
result, less oxygen makes its way to the body's organs, and the heart becomes
damaged over time due to its increased workload.
How stress relates to
sleep, heart health
Stress is another factor
that can contribute to heart disease.
In the current study, the
researchers defined a stressful job as one that places high demands on the
employee without giving them much control over what they have to do and achieve
each day.
They also noted that most
of the people with sleep issues had problems staying asleep, while others had
trouble falling asleep.
"Maintaining sleep
is the most common problem in people with stressful jobs," says Prof.
Ladwig. "They wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning to go to the toilet and
come back to bed ruminating about how to deal with work issues."
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