Work stress increases arteriosclerosis progression

Stress, resulting from great pressure in the work place, may increase the progression of atherosclerosis by 46% in people who have highly reactive personalities to stress. This is demonstrated by a study which will be discussed at the XVI World Congress of Cardiology in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The study, performed by researchers at the School of Public Health in Berkeley, USA, found that the association of stress and very demanding work in a personality highly reactive to stress, results in the thickening of the internal walls of the carotid arteries and formation of atherosclerotic plaques which progressively obstruct blood flow. Both factors are markers of the progression of atherosclerosis that underlies cardiovascular disease.

"Studies like these have shown that work stress is associated to cardiovascular disease," stated Noel Bairey Merz, director of the preventive and rehabilitative cardiac center at Cedars-Sinai in the USA, who said that, although it is difficult to estimate how many people are at risk of coronary disease because of work stress, the most recent analysis of the INTERHEART study directed by Salim Yusuf makes it possible to estimate that from 20% to 30% of heart attacks can be attributed to psychological stress."