Fitness protects against health risks caused by stress at work
Everyone gets stressed up, not only at workplace but anywhere else, including at home. We also know that fitness leads to wellbeing and also protects against the health problems that arise when we feel particularly stressed at work.
Sports scientists from the University of Basel and their colleagues from Sweden, report that it pays to stay physically active, especially during periods of high stress.
One of the key factors leading to illness-related absences from work is psychosocial stress that is known to cause impairment of mental wellbeing and an increase in depressive symptoms. Psychosocial stress also raises the likelihood of cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure. Conversely, a high fitness level is associated with fewer depressive symptoms and cardiovascular risk factors.
The data from the study published in the US journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise shows that a high fitness level offers particularly effective protection for professionals who experience a high degree of stress in the workplace.
The data was obtained by the researchers by recording the fitness levels of almost 200 Swedish employees using a so-called bicycle ergometer test, and measuring various known cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol, triglycerides and glycosylated hemoglobin.
The participants were then asked to provide information on their current perception of stress. As expected, the study conducted by the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel, the Institute of Stress Medicine, and Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg illustrated that stressed individuals exhibit higher values of most cardiovascular risk factors.
It was also confirmed that cardiovascular fitness is linked to virtually all risk factors, with the risk factors being low in people who are physically fit.
‘Above all, these findings are significant because it is precisely when people are stressed that they tend to engage in physical activity less often,’ says Professor Markus Gerber of the University of Basel.
Professor Markus says that the study has direct implications for the therapy and treatment of stress-related disorders.
Employees or even population at large will be able to prevent or manage stress-related disorders effectively if fitness levels are high!
