As shown in a report in the American Journal of Epidemiology, stressing out can cause people to gain weight. It is believed that this study is among the first of its kind to examine at the relationship between weight gain and different types of stress. It examined different types of stress that included job-related demands, difficulty paying bills, tense home life, depression or anxiety disorder.
“Today’s economy is stressing people out, and stress has been linked to a number of illnesses – such as heart disease, high blood pressure and increased risk for cancer. This study shows that stress is also linked to weight gain” as described by Jason Block, M.D., M.P.H.. Dr Block is the person that directed the research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health … Society Scholar at Harvard University. Block practices internal medicine at Brigham … Women’s Hospital and is on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School/Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
The study shows that women’s waistlines are affected by more types of stress. As discovered in the study, “Psychosocial Stress and Change in Weight Among U.S. Adults.” Along with weight gain associated with money troubles or a difficult job, women also put on pounds when wrestling with strained family relationships and feeling restricted by life’s conditions.
For men, the numbers on the scale did not increase when facing tense family relationships or feeling controlled by life circumstances. For men, lack of decision say-so at work and want of skill discretion was associated with greater weight increases. Skill discretion can be characterised as the power to acquire new skills on the job and to perform interesting job duties.
Overall, this research found that individuals who described raised psychological stress put on more weight if they already had higher body mass indexes (BMI). A related weight-gain practice was not discovered among lower-weight people who were addressing similar types of stress, as reported in the research.
When grappling with life’s stressful times, people may change their eating behaviors, and this can lead to shifts in weight. Stress stimulated weight increase is influenced by an individual’s gender, what types of foods they eat when they modifiy their eating patterns, and whether the person is already overweight or obese. These factors have been shown to cause some people to gain more weight under stressful circumstances. While others may add less weight or some times even lose weight under stress.
The study recommended that stress decrease may play an important part of weight-loss programs in the workplace and in clinical and public health programs. In the workplace, access to weight-loss programs, flexible work schedules and exercise programs can help stressed-out workers.
“This is one of the first studies to explore the relationship between stress and weight gain,” Block said. “Our findings show that stress should be recognized as a threat to the well-being of adults, especially those who are already overweight.
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