Stress and Illness    |    Creativity and Health

Illness has many different causes, but it's surprising how often stress can play a part.

When it damages our health, stress tends to operate "under the radar", meaning that often we're not really aware of its destructive impact.

Take the Whitehall Studies that tracked the health of thousands of British civil servants. These looked at two workplace stressors: unfair treatment at work, and lack of control over one’s job. Among those studied, exposure to either of these increased their risk of coronary heart disease by a full 70%.

Cardiac disease has also been linked to anger, as when this “stress force” makes us furious at a “blame object” or scapegoat. One study showed that being stressed by anger in this way was associated with a 31% hike in coronary heart disease risk. The same study found that those who stayed calm and constructive even in the thick of heated disputes actually enjoyed a lowering of their risk of coronary heart disease.

That stress can operate on multiple levels is highlighted also in the Copenhagen City Heart Study. This showed that high levels of stress can make a healthy lifestyle harder to attain - by making us less likely to succeed with measures like quitting a smoking habit, limiting our alcohol intake, and staying physically active. Among women, stress was found to increase the risk of excessive weight gain. Equally, stress was associated with needing treatment for high blood pressure, while among men stress went with a doubling of the risk of developing diabetes. Each of these effects, the authors noted, can add to one’s chance of developing cardiovascular disease.

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Then, there are those illnesses that are rooted more directly in our emotional well-being, such as anxiety (associated with fear) and addiction (with compulsive desire).

Our self-creativity thrives only when such "stress forces" are mastered. Click here to find out a method for achieving this.

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