Losing Your Temper At Work May Be Good For Your Heart
Anger against heartless bosses and schemeing colleagues,
if kept bottled up, may give you a heart attack.
Men who keep their feelings about being unfairly treated
at work are up to five times more likely to suffer heart
attack or even die from one than those who let their
frustration show, a Swedish study has found.
The study by the Stress Research Institute of Stockholm University
followed 2,755 employed men in Sweden who had not suffered any
heart attacks from 1992 to 2003, reported Reuters.
They were checked for smoking, drinking, physical activity, education,
diabetes, job demands and their freedom to take decisions, reported the BBC.
Aged 41 on average, thier blood pressure, body mass index and cholesterol
levels were measured.
Covert coping was listed as “letting things pass without saying anything” and
“going away” despite feelings of being treated unfairly by colleagues or bosses.
Men who often used these coping techniques had a two to five-fold higher risk of
developing heart disease than those who were more confrontational at work, the
study showed.
Women were included in the study and the results showed bottling things up was
equally damaging for them. However, because of the low number of heart deaths
among women, no conclusions could be drawn, reported the Independent.
“Futher research should examine whether interventions designd to reduce covert
coping would alter the risk of myocardial infarction and death,” the researchers
said.
Ms Constanze Leineweber, of the Stress Research Institute of Stockholm University,
who led the study said: “I would not advise shouting at the boss. That is not the
best solution. But it is always better to say you feel unfairly treated and to find
constructive solutions to it.
“We found an increase in risk among those who did not talk to boss. There must be
ways of reducing the risk.”
She added:”Of course it would be best to have a work environment where there are no
conflicts but that isn’t always possible.”
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
