What causes type 2 diabetes, the ‘lifestyle’ disease? Poor diet, lack of exercise and being overweight, for sure-but scientists reckon that stress at work should be added to the list.
People who struggle at work or have a demanding boss have a 45 per cent higher risk of developing the disease, even if they’re eating a healthy diet and exercising.
As with most cases of stress, it’s those who feel they don’t have much control over events or outcomes who are at the highest risk, say researchers from the University Hospital of Giessen and Marburg.
Even people who have none of the known risk factors can develop diabetes if they work in a stressful environment.
The researchers made the connection to the disease when they examined the health of around 5,300 employees aged between 29 and 66; although none of them had diabetes at the beginning of the study, almost 300 went on to develop the disease during the following 13 years.
Workplace stress is already known to cause heart disease-but now diabetes can be added to the list.
(Source: Psychosomatic Medicine, 2014; doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000084)
