Intense pressure at work can feel painful and harmful. It turns out that work-related stress really could be harmful. The BBC reports on a study of over 6,000 Canadian workers that found work stress can increase blood pressure.
While stress is one cause of high blood pressure, there are a number of other things that can contribute, such as a poor diet, drinking too much alcohol, being overweight or obese, eating too much salt and not doing enough exercise.
Dr Chantal Guimont and colleagues who carried out the latest study acknowledge that other factors may have contributed to the high blood pressure found in the white-collar workers that they studied.
However, they believe job stress is important and may chronically activate the nervous and cardiovascular system.
Dr Guimont said: "Our study supports the hypothesis that job strain, particularly in workers with low social support at work, may contribute to increased blood pressure."
The next phase of the study will be to find ways to reduce stress at work. One of the stress reduction ideas suggested in the study was to give "workers more support and control over deadlines and tasks."
