Stress and Illness

1
Stress and Illness

• Stress, on its own, does not make you ill
• It may increase your risk of illness
• Stress has been linked to
• Cardiovascular disorders
• Immune depression

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2
Stress and Illness
Direct biological effects e.g. physical
strain, hormonal changes
Maladaptive coping behaviour e.g. smoking,
drinking alcohol
Stress
Emotionally mediated effects on diet and activity
level
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3
Heart Disease Risk Factors
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4
Stress Heart Disease

• Friedman Rosenman (1974)
• Assessed 3200 healthy American men.
• Stress-prone individuals (Type As) were
  identified
• Anger hostility
• Competitiveness
• Time-urgency

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5
Stress Heart Disease

• After 8½ years, men were reassessed
• 257 had developed CHD
• Of these, 70 were Type As
• Association remained when smoking and other
  lifestyle factors were accounted for

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6
Stress Heart Disease

• Kivimaki et al (2002)
• Highly stressed workers were 2x as likely to die
  from heart problems
• Sheps et al (2002)
• Stress-prone individuals with heart problems 3x
  more likely to die from heart attack
• Steptoe et al (2005)
• Stress-prone individuals more likely to
  accumulate LDL bad blood cholesterol

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7
Stress Heart Disease

• Stress increases risk of cardiovascular disease
  but is not a direct causal factor
• Effect is mediated by personality (stress
  prone-ness)
• The mechanism is complex
• Direct effects and lifestyle-mediated ones are
  both likely to be important
• Stress effects are clearest with pre-existing CHD
• If you have CHD stress will probably make it
  worse
• But we still dont know if stress causes CHD
  initially

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