Long-Term Stress

Long term stress has many negative consequences in humans such as cardiovascular disease and obesity.

For 25 years Dr. Sir Michael Marmot studied British Civil Service workers for relative risk of death by heart disease (CHD) in the Whitehall Study. Marmot found that those in the best paying jobs (administrative) were at lower risk for CHD while those in the lowest paying jobs (clerical, other) were at greater relative risk of dying from CHD. Most of the difference was unexplained and not linked to known unhealthy habits such as smoking or high cholesterol.

We now know that anticipatory or psychological stress contributes greatly to the unexplained causes of heart disease in low wage workers.