Is work KILLING you? High stress levels ‘increase your risk of deadly heart attack or stroke’

IT’S a throwaway comment we say all the time – “work is killing me”.

But if you’re stressed out all the time it may well be doing just that.

US researchers have discovered that people who feel generally happy have healthier hearts.

So that means, if you are feeling stressed out at work and generally a little bit down then your heart is likely suffering, they warn.

Lead author Jiah Yoo, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: “Our key finding is that positive emotions predict blood-lipid (fat) profiles differently across cultures.

“American adults who experience high levels of positive emotions, such as feeling ‘cheerful’ and ‘extremely happy’, are more likely to have healthy blood-lipid profiles, even after accounting for other factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, and chronic conditions.”

Experts looked at information from two studies of adults in the US and in Japan.

The study looked at how often they felt happy over a 30 day period and tested the fat levels in their blood.

They found that when people were at their happiest their blood lipid (fat) levels were lower, but only in Americans.

Which means they are less likely to suffer heart problems.

WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK These are the top tips to bring happiness into your work life and avoid getting weighed down by stress

The differences were put down to the relationship between feeling happy and having a lower body mass index (BMI).

Yoo added: “By demonstrating that the cultural variation in the connection between emotional well-being and physical well-being, our research has wide-ranging relevance among those who seek to promote well-being in the communities and the workplace, including clinicians, executives, and policy makers.”