Unemployed? As the bills add up, so might your chances of getting sick.
Living in a high-stress environment hampers your body?s ability to defend itself from diseases and foreign bodies.
The good news is, getting hired can help. Recently, doctors at the University of California San Francisco documented the immune system?s ability to recover from chronic stress. When comparing unemployed participants with those who were employed, researchers found that participants without a job had weaker immune systems. However, immune systems improved in 25 percent of the unemployed participants once they found jobs.
“How stress works is not fully understood yet. More studies are needed,” said Anne Arundel Medical Center internist Dr. Richard Bernstein. “However, we know stress can trigger asthma and increase the risk of a heart attack.”
“I?m concerned that we have a society that seems to be under such stress that it creates a chronic state of anxiety,” Bernstein said.
To learn how to manage stress, visit nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/managingstress/htm/lesson.htm.
