People who handle high-stress occupations and experience job burnout may be more vulnerable to a particular kind of diabetes. This information was shared after a study was conducted by Tel Aviv University in Israel.
The study serves as a milestone in understanding diabetes as no similar effort has ever been carried out before. Though it does not make direct conclusions between job burnout and diabetes, what emerges is a plausible link between both factors.
High stress and burnout at work is comparable in terms of causing diabetes with other recognized risks such as increased body mass index, smoking and leading a physically inactive life. This was discussed by Samuel Melamed, an associate professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel who led the study.
The study was quite detailed and took a sample group of 677 people all approximately aged 43 years and of whom 77% were men and all in the age group of 43 years. They were tracked by the research group over a period of 6 years starting 1998 up to 2003. The results of the study were subsequently published in Psychosomatic Magazine (Nov/Dec.issue)
During the course of the study, type 2 diabetes was diagnosed in 17 people, people occupied in high-stress professions were 1.84 times more vulnerable to being afflicted with diabetes. This despite the fact that age, sex and obesity were included as determining factors.
Adding another dimension to the study, the research team analysed a group of 507 Israeli workers on the parameter of blood pressure level. It was found that type 2 diabetes was more more than 4 times more likely to strike workers with job burn-out.
However, job burnout couldn't be made the entire culprit according to Melamed. Ability to cope with stress plays a big role in contracting diabetes. The ability to face stress with calm and composure gets lessened with the trials of challenges face in their daily lives. Such is the magnitude of the stress factor that it can form a significant hurdle in the body's glucose processing function and particularly so with people who have family history of diabetes.
This was disclosed by Richard Surwit, chief of the Division of Medical Psychology at Duke University Medical Center. Suwitt felt that more conclusive findings could be established only when the same study was extrapolated and conducted amongst a far larger sample of people.
