A Swedish study published last year (Occupational Stress and Risk for Parkinson’s Disease) found that your risk of getting Parkinson’s disease may be related to the intensity of your occupational stress in conjunction with your gender and level of education. Before I discuss the article in detail, I want to paste here a frightening throw-away line from its introduction, and I’ll put the scary part in italics:
“It is also well known that stress can worsen motor symptoms in PD patients, but there are few epidemiological studies on stress as a risk factor for PD….”
Gulp! I work in a stressful-but-rewarding job because I love it and I need to earn a living. (It’s rewarding in both senses of the word.) Am I shooting myself in the foot by continuing this employment? It seems to me that I would be just as stressed out by quitting my profession and seeking new work elsewhere….Oh, jeez….Is my review of this research study adding to my stress levels?
But back to the article. The researchers tracked the onset of PD in two-and-a-half million Swedes born between 1920 and 1950, and related the new cases of PD (starting at the baseline of January 1, 1987) to a four-way matrix of career types, based on job demand and job control.
Here’s how the article explains this matrix:
The model consists of the following 2 dimensions: job demands and job control. The demand component measures time pressure and psychological/cognitive demands, whereas job control refers to a combination of decision-making authority (eg, influence over time use and planning of work) and skill discretion (eg, varied task content and possibility to learn new things). These dimensions can be combined into the following 4 categories of occupations: low strain (high control/low demands), passive (low control/low demands), active (high control/high demands), and high strain (low control/high demands). According to the model, low control, high demands and especially the combination of these (high strain) are hypothesized to cause enduring strain and predict adverse health outcomes.
For added measure, the researchers also noted each participant’s gender, educational level, and whether they developed COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Why the COPD? It was a stand-in for whether the individual smoked cigarettes, as cigarette smoking tends to protect you from getting PD. The researchers had no way of knowing who smoked and who didn’t, so they used COPD as a substitute, expecting to find fewer PD cases in the COPD crowd, assuming that many of them were smokers.
To see how this job matrix plays out with specific careers, gender and levels of educational attainment, click on “Download” for an easy-to-read chart. Can you see where you fit into the matrix?
What were the significant findings? Let’s bullet them:
- The mean age when people were diagnosed with PD was 71 years.
- PD occurred more frequently in men, with people who did not have COPD, and with people who had high levels of education.
- Both high-demand and high-control jobs were associated with an increased risk of getting PD.
- “High-strain jobs (high demands and low control) were associated with PD risk in highly-educated men, whereas active jobs (high demands, high control) were associated with increased PD risk in men with low education. There were no associations between job strain groups and PD among women.”
- However, high control jobs were associated with an increased PD risk for women with minimal education.
It’s enough to make your head spin.
My mind, naturally enough, keeps returning to the throw-away quote I inserted at the top of this article: “It is also well known that stress can worsen motor symptoms in PD patients….” I don’t know what I can do about this, but I have to do something to reduce my stress levels. Perhaps this is where meditation, not medication, can help me. I’ll have to start thinking about this and mulling over what steps I can take, even as I notice that the phrase “I have to start thinking about this” is a form of stress itself.
I know that one thing for sure shifts my mind from a stressed-out state to a relaxed and cheerful one: watching certain music videos which transport me on a full-strength mental vacation. For example, Dusty Springfield singing “Can’t We Be Friends,” the levitation scene from the new movie “Rocketman,” or Sarah Vaughn singing “Misty.”
I’ll post them here. Perhaps after watching them a few more times I’ll make some “headway” in reducing my stress.
